Cinefantastique Magazine: 1970-2002

361 6478 ? 5

Volume 31 Numbers 6

RUM & SCORE KIM,
WHiinB

iflDB

Buffy.

Vampir®

Slayer

Don't miss our next exciting cover story on the making of Disney s
epic animated adapatation of Edgar Rice Burroughs TARZAN. It s
Tarzan the way you've never seen him before in the movies, the way the
dynamic fantasy hero was originally envisioned by his creator. Inter¬
viewed are co-directors Kevin Lima and Chris Buck, Tarzan s master an¬
imator Glen Keane, and CGI supervisor Eric Daniels on the creation of
“Deep Canvas," Disney’s revolutionary animation software which com¬
bines TARZANs powerful animation with stunningly painted jungle back¬
grounds. Plus a profile of Tarzans creator and his checkered movie ca¬
reer. It's movie coverage as only CINEFANTASTIQUE knows how!

And also in the same issue, behind-the-scenes of the filming of
WILD,WILD WEST, including interviews with director Barry Sonnenfeld,
star Will Smith, and production designer Bo Welch. Plus director Jay
Roach on filming AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME. our
review of STAR WARS: THE PHANTOM MENACE, and much more!

Subscribe today at the special low rate of just $48 for the next twelve
issues, and select one of our recent or rare back issues shown below left,
or on the back cover and inside back cover, as your free gift! (Sorry, free
issues are for new subscribers only). Subscribe for two years (24 issues)
for only $90 (a savings of $50 off the newsstand price!) and take two back
issues of your choice free! It doesn't get any better than this!

Subscribe Now at Money-Saving Rates and
Take Any Issue Below Left jis Our Gift!

ffSH

ANIMEFANTASTIOUE is the
quarterly companion to CINEFAN
TASTIQUE covering the world ot
animation. Pich-up our second quar¬
terly issue (shown below right) on
newsstands now. or order a sub¬
scription for four issues at $20 (a
savings of nearly $4 off the new-
stand price) and take issue *3
(above nght) or issue #1 (shown be¬
low). devoted to THE IRRESPONSI¬
BLE CAPTAIN TYLOR. or the spe
Cial CINEFANTASTIQUE cover sto¬
ry on AEON FLUX (shown left) as
our free gift for subscribing. Sub¬
scribe for eight issues at S38 (a sav
mgs of nearly $10) and take two is¬
sues free 1 Your subscription will be¬
gin with ANIMEFANTASTIOUE S3,
devoted to the making of Japan s
PRINCESS MONONOKE. perhaps
the greatest animated film ever
made 1 It's amme the CFO way!

As a special gift lor subsenbing to
ANIMEFANTASTIOUE you can
select the rare back issue of
CINEFANTASTIQUE wrth a cover
and 20 pages devoted to AEON
FLUX (left), available only to
ANIMEFANTASTIOUE subscribers'

Volume 31 Number 4

STAR WARS prequels. Episode
one. THE PHANTOM MENACE
Also features George Lucas as *1
of our top 75 genre figures $8.00

Volume 28 Number 8

Our 20lh Anniversary tribute to
STAR WARS, including interviews
with star Peter Cushing, producer
Gary Kutrtz. and much more $8.00

Volume 28 Number 9

Our 20th Anniversary tribute
to the effects of THE EMPIRE
STRIKES BACK, plus the effects
legacy of STAR WARS. $8.00

Volume 31 Number 5

XENA WARRIOR PRINCESS. Ihe
runaway TV hi!!. Includes interviews
with star Lucy Lawless, creator A
producer Rob Taped and others $8.00

Volume 31 Number 3

BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER
Creator Joss Whedon, Optic Nerve on
makeup and ccmpteto 2nd season
episode guide $8.00

Volume 28 Number 11

Only AFQ subscribers can gel this
special cover free Available as a
back issue or to CFO subscribers
with cover on THE SHINING $8-00

ORDER TOLL FREE BY PHONE, 1-800-798-6515 OR USE ORDER FORM, SEE PAGE 62

CINEFANTA> I lUUt

OOP 00000006000 OOOOOOQOOOOOOO

VOLUME 31 NUMBER f>

Everywhere you look, it's
Lucasmama. as the world gears up for
the release of the first new STAR WARS
film since 1983 Television shows
feature dips; magazines (like ours) run
cover stories; and even the trailers have
been reviewed in newspapers, as if they
were works of art in their own right.

It’s interesting to note how things
have changed since the franchise made
its debut over two decades ago At that
time, STAR WARS was seen as an
immensely entertaining film but not a
serious work of art. nor as some kind of
important cultural artifact. With the
ensuing sequels, novels. TV specials,
toys, and games, the phenomenon
extended far beyond the films
themselves, which have become little
more than flashpoints used to ignite a
new round of merchandising. Which
doesn't mean that THE PHANTOM
MENACE will be bad, only that its
quality is more or less irrelevant to the
attention the film receives, because
everyone knows that, one way or
another, this film wilt be the big
blockbuster of the year.

This probably sounds like the usual,
critical rant of the kind often directed at
popular filmmaking However, there is a
more subtle irony I want to observe:
whereas the first STAR WARS was seen
as something of a step down from what
a Hollywood blockbuster was capable of
achieving (hey. it came out in the same
decade as THE GODFATHER), THE
PHANTOM MENACE is actually being
seen as a big step up from most recent
summer movie fare. A lot of this no
doubt has to do with GODZILLA'S over-
hyped ad campaign last year, which
blared “Size Does Matter" - a sort of
direct contradiction to Yoda’s famous
line. “Size matters not." Since then, the
unofficial catchline for THE PHANTOM
MENACE (encouraged by the official
website) has become “Plot Does
Matter." Funny how a series once
known for propping up simple
storytelling with exciting action and
effects, has now become the bastion of
old-fashioned narrative filmmaking.

Steve Biodrowski

‘The Magazine with a Sense of Wonder*

JUNE 1W0

Page 6

Page 8

Page 20

Page 22

Page 54

7“TARZAN”

Disney animates the Lord of the Apes. / Preview by Mike Lyons

8 “Star wars, episode one: the phantom menace"

George Lucas launches the first installment of the prequel trilogy;
plus, why Lucas should have gone forward instead of backward. /
Article by Lawrence French; opinion by Steven Mallas

12 Star wars: Where are they now?

What the cast and crew of the original films are doing today. /
Profiles by Frank Garcia: interviews by Russell Lissau

16 Star wars: The men behind the masks

The unseen faces of the actors beneath the makeup and masks
reveal themselves to their fans. / Article by Russell Lissau

18 “The 13TH FLOOR”

Director Joseph Rusnak on helming the Centropolis science
fiction film. / Interview by Chuck Wagner

20 “A Midsummer nights dream"

Reimagining the Bard for the big screen. / Article by Douglas Eby

22 Remaking “The mummy”

Writer-director Stephen Sommers updates the Karloff classic. /
Articles by Joe Fordham

32 “The MUMMY" WALKS!

A look back at Universal’s original, plus the sequels starring Tom
Tyler and Lon Chaney. / Retrospective by Gregory William Mank

40 “The MUMMY” WALKS AGAIN!

Hammer Films reopened the tomb in the ’50s, with Christopher
Lee as a quick-paced Kharis. / Retrospective by Ted Newsom

48 “Noah s ark"

Filming fx for NBC’s mini-series. / Article by Anthony P Montesano

Reviews

50 “THE MATRIX" } by Steve Biodrowski

51 BORDERLAND: URBAN EVIL / by Anthony P Montesano

52 LASERBLAST: KUBRICK ON DISC / by Dennis Fischer
54 RESURRECTION: "MIGHTY PEKING MAN"

Another midnight movie revival from Rolling Thunder. /
article and review by Steve Ryfle

56 CINEMA: TARGETING TEENS / by Steve Biodrowski

57 BIBLIOFILE: SEEING-EAR BOOKS l by Dan Cziraky

58 TV: "STORM OF THE CENTURY" / by Frederick C. Szebin
60 THE SCORE: 2-MINUTE MUSIC / by Randall D. Larson

4 Release schedule 5 Hollywood gothic

Publisher & Fditor: Frederick S Clarke West ( oast Fditor: Sieve Biodrowski Bureaus: New York Dan Persons, Dan SeapperolU, law Angeles/ Douglas Hhy London
Alan Jones Contributors: Dan Cziraky, Dennis Fischer. Joe I nrdham. Lawrence French. Todd French. Frank Garcia. Randall D. Larson. Russell Lissau, Michael Lyons. Steven
Mallas. Gregory William Mank, led Newsom. Steve. Kyltc. Jay Stevenson. Frederick C Szebin. John Thoncn. Chuck Wagner Fditnrinl Operations Manager: Flame Fiedler
Fditorial Production: Lisa Tomczak-Walkington. David Bcllm Publisher’s Assistant: LisaCoduto. Circulation: Faith Redding Business Manager Celeste Casey Clarke.

Nil I'lCH KHJriV ■ AIM ‘ (Michael I iirtshiug 5R). ■ |W# 1 "olumhia f J 1 *. ( Imsiinc 1 **ss 5 IT* l 'tjikkltc Harms IH), < Ijdgai Rive Burroughs Inc Ihsncv |7); Rr*n I ord |42BI , 4JliK) r tm Searchlight (21 , Mario lurs*
21^. OiWl | ucj sfilm lid (H. UK It. 13,14, 15, ITT). CJ9M7 MandaJav (hOT); Pam Murray < m. ©NBC( Paul Dnnkwjtcr 4K, 4^ 4W. Ikeg Noakes 4KH)CI«m New lane f Peter Sued MB. K Wnghi 5); CRidJuig
I Imi it Ur | 54, 55 k (fiuted Artists (Jon J armer 5fiH| OPw* Universal (Keith Ham&hcrr 22.23 1.24,25* 27.2a. It M 23B* 2b, 471, € I vnn Wartietg(3U); Warner Brt» (h. 521*

M KNOWI JIHiKVIKNTS: Richard Rlemcmen, Greg Mank. Met) Behind the Mski* XFX C TlVIJi; David Mugi

(IN EFA NTASTIQ1 E (ISSN 01454032) is published month I y at 724ti W Roosevelt Kd . Forest Park* II MllJkl (TUB) 3«i-55fk» Second class postage paid at Forest Park. IT Mil 30 & additional mailing offices
PC 1STMAS1T-R Send address changes in ClNEFANTASTlUUE, Pit Box 270, Uak Park, II 6CI.MI3 Subscriptions: 12 Issues l4h, |S issues Ri4, 24 Issues S'#l (FfwrjfUit r unuJu
11 fvM*i v S55, IS issues $S0* 14 Issues$100, | Single copies Sn Retail llivfntiuliun: In ihe U S by hasten) News Distributors* 2511 W 55lh Si, Nr* York. NY 1 (illIM |KHtJ| 22I-A14K

Submissions of anvtnrk and articles ate encouraged, hut must he accompanied by a self-addressed, slampcd envelope
Ctmlcnls copyright hy Frederick S Clarke ClNErANTANTIQltE " ts a Registered U S trademark PRINTED IN IS A.

INDEPENDENCE DAY
AT THE BOX OFFICE

Wild, Wild West (WB)

Will Smith and Kevin Kline star as James West and Artemis
Gordon in this film based on the 60s TV series. The script
by Jeffrey Price and Peter S. Seaman involves an attempt
by Dr Loveless {Kenneth Branagh) to assassinate Presi¬
dent Grant {Kline in a dual role). With Barry Sonnenfeld in
the director's chair, and a release timed to cash in on the lu¬
crative July Fourth Weekend. Warners is obviously expect¬
ing this film to duplicate the box office success of MEN IN
BLACK (not to mention star Will Smith s previous summer
blockbuster, ID4). Apparently, the other studios agree, as
they are opening no competing films that weekend.

July 2

THE Mummy (Universal) May 7

After a decade in development hell, one of Universal s
classic monsters finally comes back out of his tomb for
a new generation of filmgoers, SEE PAGE 22

Star Wars. Episode One:

The Phantom Menace (Fox) May 19

Originally announced for May 21, this STAR WARS pre-
quel had its debut moved up two days to Wednesday, to
get a jump on the competition SEE PAGE 8

Supernova (mgm) September

This film was set to open in March, until Walter Hill left
the project during post-production MGM completed the
film without his involvement Although it was originally
reported that Hill would retain his director's credit, he
later announced that he would try to have his name re¬
placed with the DGA’s "Alan Smilhee" pseudonym

AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY
Who Shagged Me (nl) June 11

Michael Myers returns in this sequel to the sleeper hit.
Also returning is Robert Wagner, joined by newcomers
Heather Graham and Rob Lowe SEE PAGE S

Deep Blue Sea (WB) August

A May 14 debut has been pushed back to August for
this film about the pitfalls of genetically engineering
sharks to have intelligence matching that of dolphins,
while still retaining their aggressive instincts Renny
Harlin directed Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel Jackson
in a script by Duncan Kennedy and John Zinman.

EXlSTENZ (Dimension) Now Playing

David Cronenberg's new film, about videogame super¬
stars who enter their fantasy realms via a surgical im¬
plant in the lower back, reached theatres a bit sooner
than originally planned Cronenberg had wanted a sum¬
mer or fall release, but "our European distributors, who
are very excited about the movie, didn't want to wait un¬
til the summer," he explained. A February 16th launch in
Berlin, after competing in the Berlin Film Festival, gave
way to a wide European release in France, the UK, and
Spam in March, followed by the U.S bow in late April
Cronenberg added that the new STAR WARS film was
a factor. “That's coming out in May. and I don't think
anyone wants to be out there up against STAR WARS,
particularly if you've got a science fiction movie I think
every theatre in North America is going to be showing
STAR WARS I don’t think you'll be able to see anything
else." Fans of Cronenberg's oeuvre should be happy to
see that many of his recurring themes and concepts are
present in his latest work: the internal invasion of the
body; the outcast lifestyle created by those who take
living on the edge a little too far; the strange sexual
symbolism, and the terrible powers that people can un¬
leash when not held in check. “It’s another metaphor,
but it led me into many of the same arenas," he admit¬
ted Jude Law. Ian Holm, and Willem Dafoe co-star.

Paul Wardle

Upcoming cinefantastique at a
glance, along with a word or two
for the discriminating viewer.

compiled by Jay Stevenson
(unless otherwise noted)

SOUTH Park (Paramount) June 18

"Oh my god. they killed Kenny r "You bastards'" That's
right; those foul-mouthed kids from the Comedy Central
cartoon are heading into their first big-screen adven¬
ture. Paramount, which had great success with Beavis
and Bullhead's big screen debut a couple years ago, is
releasing this animated feature on the same day as
Disney's TARZAN You've got to admire their nerve

TARZAN (Disney) June 18

It's been awhile since a Disney animated feature
opened in head-to-head competition with a rival re¬
lease. Can this adaptation of Edgar Rice Burroughs
most famous character withstand the competition from
Stan, Kyle. Cartman. and Kenny? SEE PAGE 7

The Thirteenth

FLOOR (Columbia) May 28

Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin exec-produced this
science fiction film about a business tycoon (Armm
Muetler-Stahl) leading a double life; one in the contem¬
porary. real world, the other in a technologically-recreat-
ed 1937 SEE PAGE 18

Twin Dragons

(Dimension) Now Playing

In this dubbed Hong Kong import. Jackie Chan stars as
identical twins separated at birth: one is a martial arts
expert, the other a symphony conductor Needless to
say, the mild-mannered conductor is mistaken for his
double by the criminals, and the twins end up trading
places, to comic effect Yes. it's one of the oldest cliches
around, but Chan milks it for all it’s worth The genre ele¬
ment takes the form of a psychic connection between
the twins, so that each character feels what is happen¬
ing to the other In the finale, this is put to hysterically
funny use. when the conductor is manipulated, like a
puppel on a string, by his caged twin, who thus uses his
martial arts prowess by remote control to defeat the bad
guys Amusing stuff, recommended

A Midsummer Night s Dream

(Fox Searchlight) _ May 7

Michael Hoffman directs an all-star cast and appears in
his adaptation of Shakespeare's fanciful romantic-com¬
edy SEE PAGE 20.

Mighty Peking Man

(Rolling Thunder) Now Playing (exclusive)

Rolling Thunder and Cowboy Booking International,
who brought you THE BEYOND last year, re-team for a
midnight re-release of this 1977 Hong Kong production,
which is perhaps best described as "Mighty Joe Egg-
Foo Young " SEE PAGE 54 Steve Ryfle

MOLLY (MGM) now Playing

Elisabeth Shue (LEAVING LAS VEGAS) stars as an
autistic woman who is turned into a genius by an exper¬
imental medical procedure. If this sounds familiar, then
either you have read Daniel Keyes story "Flowers for
Algernon." or you have seen the 1968 film adaptation,
CHARLY, which won Cliff Robertson an Academy
Award for his performance in the title role,

DELAYED UNWRAPPING

TALOS, THE Mummy (Dimension)

This bandage epic was set to open on April 2, a month
ahead of Universal's remake of THE MUMMY But a
funny thing happened on the way to theatres: SHAKE¬
SPEARE IN LOVE What does the Best Picture of 1998
have to do with Mummies? Well, that Oscar-winner was
co-presenled by Universal Pictures and Miramax, and
Miramax is the parent company of Dimension, which
has the U.S. distribution rights to TALOS, Russell Mulc-
ahy's independently financed horror film. Needless to
say. Universal was a bit aghast to see that the company
with whom they were partnered on SHAKESPEARE,
was planning to turn around and stab them in the back
by releasing a rival Mummy film a month before their
own production reached the screens An amicable
arrangement was reached between the two companies,
with Miramax-Dimension agreeing to delay their film un¬
til Halloween

October

Austin Powers ii

The International Man of Mystery
is swinging hack into action, baby.

by Douglas Eby

In AUSTIN POWERS: THE SPY WHO SHAGGED ME, Mike Myers returns
as the ‘60s spy. this time assisted by Heather Graham as Felicity Shagwell.

Mike Myers returns as the Inter¬
national Man of Mystery in AUSTIN
POWERS: THE SPY WHO
SHAGGED ME. In keeping with the
Bond films that the character
spoofs. Powers will have a new fe¬
male sidekick; however, director
Jay Roach confirmed that Elizabeth
Hurley does make a cameo as
Vanessa Kensington, "It isn't a lot
of time, but she returns for a really
great opening sequence," he said.
“I can't reveal the outcome of what
it is, but it's hysterical, and a great
transition into this sequel." Also re¬
turning is Seth Green as Scott Evil.
Noted Roach. “Seth is amazing.
One of the best parts of doing this
series is that he is, again, another
great improv actor."

This time out, Heather Graham
takes the female lead as Felicity
Shagwell. "She was amazing."
Roach enthused “She really just
became a character unlike any that
I've ever seen her play. I’ve seen
almost all of her work, and I've al¬
ways been a fan. and she was my
absolute first choice for the part.
She has such a great mixture of a
sort of '60s playfulness, and seem¬
ingly carefree attitude, mixed with
an underlying intelligence, which
kind of sneaks up on you. She’s
very, very smart. But she's so
beautiful and so funny and free-
spirited that you don't instantly no¬
tice how smart she is. and then
when you do, you say Oh my God.'"

Graham's character is someone
who’s been a fan of Austin Powers,
and has “studied his techniques,
his skill and modus operandi as a
spy, and has embraced them in
herself," Roach said. “She's an
American version of that, and dri¬
ves a beautiful 1967 Corvette that's
painted like an American flag, the
way Austin's Jag was painted with
the Union Jack. And she has some
of his mannerisms and some of his
sexual mores, shall we say, and
prides herself on having modeled
herself after him. and then the
great twist is he shows up, and they
seem like the perfect couple, but in

this case, he's lost his mojo. as we
say. and he is kind of not even as
Austin' as she is to begin with. Gra
ham loved that idea, and it kind of
matched her own feelings for the
character, and for Mike Myers. She
really loved the character of Austin
Powers, and wanted a chance to
try to fit into that world. That's the
kind of eagerness and earnestness
with which she played the part. So
the offscreen reality matched the
onscreen character, so it worked
out beautifully."

Other new faces include Tim
Robbins, in a cameo as the Presi¬
dent of the United States ( “who is
of course being threatened by Dr.
Evil and blackmailed in some
grand, diabolical plot,” per Roach)
and Kristen Johnston of THIRD
ROCK FROM THE SUN. “Ivana
Humpalot is a great new invention,
and Kristen allowed us to com¬
pletely transform her," said Roach
“In fact, it was her idea, and she
has a very different look than what
she has in her television world. I
hope people recognize her; I mean,
she's such a great actress, it's go¬
ing to work whether they do or not.
but I hope people also get the joy of
knowing that it's her. She plays a
Russian spy who's in a scene with

Rebecca Romijn, the supermodel,
and they are, together, subjects for
an Austin Powers' photo session.
And then they have a THOMAS
CROWN AFFAIR chess game, and
it is so funny; it turned out so much
funnier than we expected. The
script was really funny, but Mike
and Kristen started improvising to¬
gether. and they were a riot. It's like
watching great tennis players; it
just goes back and forth, and you
realize they're pushing each other,
and drawing each other into a
place of total freedom and creativi¬
ty. It was really fun. □

Battlestar

Galacticas

by John Thonen

Two separate projects are un¬
der way to remake ABC’s 1978
Star Wars clone, BATTLESTAR
GALACTICA. In March. Glen Lar¬
son, creator-producer of the origi¬
nal series, and Todd Moyer, pro¬
ducer of WING COMMANDER, is¬
sued a press release regarding a
planned $40 million movie. To their
surprise, another update of the se¬
ries came to light days later, this
one under the auspices of original
series star. Richard Hatch.

Encouraged by continuing fan
support of the show. Hatch had
been meeting with Universal Pic¬
tures. who reportedly controls TV
and merchandising rights to the se¬
ries. Working with co-director Jay
Woelfel (who directed him in two
independent genre films) Hatch
shot a promo film, featuring himself
and several other original series
stars, along with cylons, vipers,
and high quality effects from Brick
Price (APOLLO 13).

Larson claims rights to produce
a theatrical BATTLESTAR, but has
had no contact with Universal. Any
opposition from the studio could tie
him up in court for years. The com¬
mercial and critical failure of WING
COMMANOER may also impede
Larson and Moyer, whose project
has few tangible assets beyond a
press release. Hatch has a finished
script, a completed promo film, cur¬
rent relations with Universal,
strong ties to the fan community,
and links to original series stars, all
of which may put him in a preemp¬
tive position as the Battling Bat-
tlestars get under way. □

Short Notes

The proposed SPIDERMAN movie has finally been untangled from the le¬
gal web that has been holding up production for many years. A settlement
was reached with everyone making some kind of legal claim on the proper¬
ty, and Marvel Enterprises was able to sign an agreement with Sony Pic¬
tures Entertainment to launch a film and TV franchise. Director Brian
DePalma and actor Gary Sinise. who last worked together on SNAKE
EYES, will re-team on Disney's big-budget MISSION TO MARS. Joe
Dante, whose SMALL SOLDIERS was something of a small comeback,
has signed to direct Phoenix Pictures' cloning thriller THE SIXTH DAY,
which reunites the director with producers Jon Davison and Mike Fennell,
from TWILIGHT ZONE; THE MOVIE. ® Oscar-winner Kim Bassinger will
star for director Chuck Russell (THE MASK) in Paramount's supernatural
thriller BLESS THIS CHILD, about a psychiatric nurse who must save a
child from Satanists.

5

CINEFANTASTIQUE NEWS

INTERNATIONAL EDITION

Stanley Kubrick 1928-1999

The filmmaker who took us on the ultimate
a journey beyond the stars—never lived to see ZUUl

Stanley Kubrick's genre output was smalV—only tour films—butits
quality ranked him as the cinema's greatest practitioner ot science tiction

by Steve Biodrowski

Stanley Kubrick never lived to
see 2001.

I find this, somehow, stagger¬
ing. It’s as if a part of my life has
been ripped away, and will never
be replaced. It seems inconceiv¬
able that the filmmaker who visual¬
ized the future so brilliantly should
not live to see that future become
reality. His output was small, in¬
cluding only four genre films (DR.
STRANGELOVE, OR HOW l
LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING
AND LOVE THE BOMB; 2001: A
SPACE ODYSSEY; A CLOCK¬
WORK ORANGE; and THE SHIN¬
ING), but his imagination stretched
so far that it seemed as if it would
inevitably take him—and us into
the next millennium.

Of course, Kubrick wasn't really
in the business of predicting the fu¬
ture; one certainly wouldn't want
the events of STRANGELOVE or
CLOCKWORK to come to pass (al¬
though one might argue that the lat¬
ter, to a certain extent, already
has). No, Kubrick was in the busi¬

ness of speculating on what might
be. Perhaps “business" is the
wrong word, however; it suggests
the cold sterility that too many crit¬
ics mistakenly attributed to him.
Rather, it would be more accurate
to say that Kubrick played the great

game of "What II?**— and played it
better than any other filmmaker
ever has. or perhaps ever will. His
vision didn't predict reality: it al¬
tered the very reality of our lives by
opening up our minds to vistas we
might otherwise never have imag¬
ined. Once those visions were em¬
bedded in our minds, our reality
would never be the same, nor was
it necessary for actual events to
validate them. (As Philip Strick
pointed out in his book Science Fic¬
tion Movies, regarding the orbiting
space station seen in 2001: "after
Kubrick, you might say. there
seems little point in spending a for¬
tune on the genuine article.1

The obituaries that followed
Kubrick's death did much to perpet¬
uate the legends surrounding the
man: that his films lacked soul,
while he obsessed over technical
details and demanded hundreds of
takes from his actors. (Kubrick him¬
self denied these rumors of multiple
takes in a Rolling Stone interview
for FULL METAL JACKET, but hey
it makes a good story, right?) The
word most often used to describe
him was “eccentric," although what
constituted this eccentricity was
seldom defined, except to say that
he chose to live in England, far
away from Hollywood. One might
rather have said that this was a
sign of his commitment to the purity
of his art, allowing him to remain
untainted by Hollywood culture.
“Reclusive" was another word ap¬

plied to him, as though he had cut
himself off from the real world, to
the detriment of the human ele¬
ment in his films. But was his life on
his estate any more reclusive than
that of most Hollywood players to¬
day—who all live in the same
neighborhoods, eat at the same
restaurants, work at the same stu¬
dios. and even marry the same
wives?

No, Kubrick came off in the in¬
terviews he gave, not as some her¬
mit disengaged from the real world,
but as an incredibly brilliant man
who knew far more than just how to
shoot film He was conversant on a
wide variety of topics, and he used
cinema not as an empty exercise in
formal technique but as a way to
express ideas in a profound (if oc¬
casionally obtuse) fashion. But
even the obscure presentation, as
in 2001, had its benefits, turning the
film into a fascinating cryptogram
that revealed its secrets only grad¬
ually -a little more with each view¬
ing. and yet never quite fully dis¬
closing its meaning in its totality.
For that reason, the film will always
remain fresh, even when the date
of its title is long past.

Kubrick died on March 7. at the
age of 70. He had just completed his
final cut. EYES WIDE SHUT (al¬
though some minor ADR work re¬
mained). Unfilmed at the time of his
death was was the eagerly anticipat¬
ed A.I., a project that would have re¬
turned him to themes he had ex¬
plored tangentially in 2001 through
the character of HAL 9000. It's sad
to think that the film will never be
made and. in fact, can't be made,
now that Kubrick is dead.

The fact that Kubrick is irreplace
able is the real mark of his stature.
Someone else could step in and di
rect a STAR WARS film and, as with
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, make it
better than George Lucas could. If
Spielberg doesn't do the next
JURASSIC PARK, Universal will just
hire someone else, and we ll still get
a fun thrill ride. But it's absolutely in¬
conceivable to even consider some
one else stepping in to take over A. I
Only Stanley Kubrick could make a
Stanley Kubrick film—personal,
unique, brilliant, inimitable No one
else will ever come close to match¬
ing that.

OSCAR WINNERS

Well, genre films actually won some Oscars this year not un¬
precedented but more rare than it should be. Nominees included Ian
McKellen for Actor and Lynn Redgrave for Supporting Actress m
GODS AND MONSTERS: Ed Harris for Supporting Actor. Peter
Weir for Director, and Andrew Niccol for Original Screenplay in THE
TRUMAN SHOW; Eugenio Zanetti and Cindy Carr for Art Direction
in WHAT DREAMS MAY COME; Gary Rydstrom. Gary Summers,
Andy Nelson and Ronald Judkins for Sound and George Watters
II for Sound Effects Editing in ARMAGEDDON; Randy Newman or
Original Dramatic Score and Jeannine Oppewall and Jay Hart for
Art Direction in PLEASANTVILLE. In the Original Musical or Comedy
Score category were nominated Newman again for A> BUGS Uht,
Matthew Wilder, David Zippel. and Jerry Golds ^ h '° r i ^ c L T’
and Stephen Schwartz and Hans Zimmer for THE PRINCE OF
EGYPT. The Original Song nominees were Diane Warren (A
MAGEDDON); Carole Bayer Sager. David Foster Tony Renis, and
Alberto Test (QUEST FOR CAMELOT); Randy Newman (BABE:
PIG IN THE CITY) and Stephen Schwartz, who penned the winner.
"When You Believe," for PRINCE OF EGYPT. For Visual Effects. AR¬
MAGEDDON (Richard R. Hoover Pat McClung, and John Frazier)
and MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (Rick Baker Hoyt Yeatman. Allen Hall,
and Jim Mitchell) were nominated; Joel Hynek.

Stuart Robertson, and Kevin Mack won for WHAT DREAMS MAY
COME. The genre’s other winner was Bill Condon, who took home
the Adapted Screenplay trophy for GODS AND MONSTERS, based
on Christopher Bram's novel. Father of Frankenstein. Incredibly,
nominees Mark Osborne and Steve Kalafer were denied an Oscar
for MORE in the Animated Short Film category, which instead went to
Chris Wedge for BUNNY. Hey guys, you wuz robbed

Prtvkw by Mike Ly©is

TK\ elieve it or not, the story
l^r ofTarzan is the second
ISj most filmed property in
Hz? the world (Dracula is
number one), and believe it or
not, it's been remade again.
This time, however, there’s no
“Me Tarzan, you Jane,"
no Cheetah the chimp, and
no Olympic swimmers in the
title role. This time, Tarzan is
animated. For their 37th ani¬
mated film, the Walt Disney
Studio is adapting the Edgar
Rice Burroughs classic, set to
be released this June.

“We thought, 'How can we
do iltis and do what Disney does
best?'" said TARZAN’S pro¬
ducer Bonnie Arnold. “The idea
of exploring Tarzan’s relation¬
ship to the animals was very ap¬
pealing, because that is proba¬
bly Disney's strongest suit—
talking animals and the relation¬
ships between animals. That’s a
piece of fantasy that I think
everyone wonders about: what
would it be like if you could
talk and communicate with ani¬
mals?”

The filmmakers may be
adding this new dynamic to the
story, but TARZAN won’t be
shoehorned into the now all-
too-familiar, animated feature
film formula. “We didn't say,
4 We’re not going to do it like

the other films,' because there
are things in this film that still
seem like classic Disney mo¬
ments." said Kevin Lima, who
co-directed with Chris Buck.
“We just followed what the sto¬
ry told us it needed to be."

Like Burrough’s classic,
Disney's TARZAN begins with
a family lost in a remote jungle.
After the death of the parents,
their baby is raised by nurturing
apes. Years later, as Tarzan
grows up wondering which
“family" he truly belongs to, an
expedition comes into the jun¬
gle, led by Professor Porter,
who has brought along his
daughter, Jane. When Tarzan
meets Jane, it opens up a whole
new world, as he sees others
who arc like him. including
Clayton, the expedition's big
game hunter, who serves as
TARZAN's villain. Clayton’s
goal is to "hag" a gorilla, which
will lend the film its conflict
and tension, as Tarzan must de¬
cide between these two worlds.

“He's a child who is trying to
find himself,” said Glen Keane,
one of the Disney's studio's

master animators, who is super¬
vising the character of Tarzan.
“And the thread of our story fol¬
lows a very human, natural
quest that we all go on."

Tony Goldwyn, who played
the villain in 1990*s GHOST,
serves as the voice ofTarzan,
with Minnie Driver as Jane,
noted British thespian Nigel
Hawthorne as Porter, and Brian
Blessed (The ghost in Kevin
Branagh’s HAMLET) as the
blustering villain, Clayton. For
the jungle cast. Kala, Tarzan’s
ape mother, is voiced by Glenn
Close; Perk, Tarzan’s gorilla
sidekick, is Rosie O’Donnell;
Tantor, the skittish elephant, is
given voice by Wayne Knight
(SEINFELD’s Newman); and
the patriarch gorilla, Kerchak, is
the baritone voice of Lance
Hcnriksen (MILLENNIUM).

Songs also play a large role,
but don’t look for the usual
show-stoppers amid the swing¬
ing vines; instead. TARZAN us¬
es music quite differently. “We
began to question whether the
characters really had to sing."
noted co-director Chris Buck.

"Then, the year that we started
working on the film, TOY STO¬
RY came out, and they were
very successful with not having
the characters sing, but instead
using background songs. We re¬
alized that does work and that
the audience accepts it.”

The filmmakers have decid¬
ed to use songs as narrative,
with drummer-singer-song-
writer Phil Collins singing at
key points in soundtrack. “We
felt that his sense of rhythm was
the right link for something that
was set in the jungle," said pro¬
ducer Arnold. “It was an inter¬
esting marriage of his abilities
as a songwriter with his sense as
a percussionist.”

TARZAN will also break
with the way in which tradition¬
ally animated films utilize com¬
puter generated imagery. Eric
Daniels, who is supervising the
film’s CGI, has created a
ground-breaking software pro¬
gram. called “Deep Canvas,"
which will give TARZAN more
depth of field. The scenes in
which Tarzan swings, leaps, and
glides from tree-to-tree take on
a dizzying perspective never
achieved before in animation.

According to Arnold, what’s
unique about Deep Canvas, is
the way it achieves this while

lonlinuctl mi page 61

Top of page: Disney's Tarzan is a "child who is trying to find himself,”
according to master animator Glen Keane, who supervised the character.

7

George Lucas wraps up
Episode 1 and looks forward
to directing 2 and 3-

vcn before the arrival
of THE PHANTOM
MENACE on May

_21st, George Lucas

has been busy planning the
second episode of his trilogy
of STAR WARS prcquels. Lu-
casfilm announced last November that
plans for shooting segments 2 and 3 have
been confirmed for the new Fox studjos
complex near Sydney, Australia.

Lucas himself attended a meeting ot the
Australian Screen Producers Association,
where he held a press conference, noting
that he would “probably” be directing the
next two episodes of the trilogy, with
Episode 2 now slated to begin shooting in
late 2(KM), (for release in May, 2002). Lucas

acknowledged that after taking
a sabbatical from directing for
over 20 years, he has found di¬
recting to be a lot of fun. Lu¬
cas also pointed out that one
big difference directing now, is
that “he owns the studio. On
THE PHANTOM MENACE, as the execu¬
tive producer, screenwriter and director, Lu¬
cas has the ultimate control— there s no-
bodv who can say no to him. Lucas joked
that.' “I knew the writer very well—and did¬
n’t have any problems with him. I also
knew the executive producer very well, so
if 1 ever had problems with the producer
[ Kick McCaltum], the executive producer
would pound him. So it was a much easier
experience all the way around.

The Queens ship escapes from a Federation battleship >n THE PHANTOMMENACE^

Lucas contrasted the pleasant working
environment he experienced on I HE
PHANTOM MENACE, with the nightmare
he encountered while trying to get the first
STAR WARS made. *i was 2S when l did
STAR WARS." he explained. *1 was work¬
ing in England, and i was doing a film that
nobody understood, in a genre that nobody
liked, in a country where film was lading
fast—so it was not an easy experience.
Many of the crew didn’t like me-
American, and 1 was young. Most people
thought it was a joke. I had very little mon¬
ey and a studio on my back all the time. It
was very difficult. And 1 had come off two
pictures that had been re-cut after 1 finished
them, so I had this fear that the studio was
going to lake my movie away and rt -cui it.

In fact, the experience ot making S l At
WARS traumatized Lucas to such a degree
that he subsequently abandoned his direct¬
ing career altogether. Ironically, it was at a
point in time when his great success would
have given him carte blanche at any studio
in Hollywood. But it was already too late.

Lucas said, "l was tired of directing.
STAR WARS had gotten too big. There was
loo much going on—too many depart¬
ments, too many ideas. I realized that in or¬
der to do the [sequels] I was going to have
to move up and be an executive producer in
order to oversee everything. But making a
movie is the easy part. It’s all that other
stuff—the studio and getting it approved
(that’s hard]. But now Em back... And I
look forward to the day when I’m going tc

Top: A smalt submersible Is attacked by a sea monster, rather like the shot In EMPIRE STRIKES BACK ol the Millennium Falcon evading the crater monster.

direct something other than STAR WARS."

However, if THE PHANTOM MEN¬
ACE, which is set to open on 3,000 plus
screens, does anywhere near the record busi¬
ness most observers think it will. Lucas
won't be free to direct a non-STAR WARS
movie for the next six years. By that time
the director will be 62, and may not have too
many prime directing years left. But as he
told Newsweek in 1095, “My life is making
movies, and I've got a lot of stories that arc
stored up in my head that I hope to get out
before my time is up. It’s just a matter of
‘how can I get through all the stories in the
amount of time I have left.' I ‘serendipitied’
into starting companies, and building tech¬
nology. and doing a lot of other things that
are related to me getting to make the movies
that I want to make. I've never had a real
• plan of, *1 want to get from here to there,

and I've got to do this.' The underlying plan
to everything is. I’ve got a bunch of movies
to tell, and this is the one I'm going to do
now, and this is the one I’m going to do
next. And then I focus on the one at hand."

THE PHANTOM MENACE is the one
currently at hand, and Lucas is unwilling to
make any predictions on it’s success, but
he's no doubt far more relaxed than 22
years ago. when he nervously sat on a
beach in Hawaii, thinking the most STAR
WARS could possibly gross was $25 mil¬
lion (the amount brought in by 2001: A
SPACE ODYSSEY). Today, many pundits
are predicting (perhaps optimistically) that
THE PHANTOM MENACE will surpass

Above: The evil Darth Maul (Ray Park} faces off In a light saber duel with a Jedi Knight. Below: Qui-Gon
(Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) debate about what to do with young Anakin Skywalker.

A large Federation transport pursues Qui-Gon (Neeson) and various animals through a forest in the PHANTOM MENACE, the first in the STAR WARS prequel trilogy.

the $600-million domestic mark set by
James Cameron’s TITANIC, but Lucas is
not even willing to bet the film will beat
the $**0 million opening weekend record
set by Steven Spielberg’s THE LOST
WORLD. Of course, if the film were to
lose steam at around $300 million, the
huge expectations it’s already engendered
would work against it, meaning it would be
widely seen as a Hop.

However, what should be most impor¬
tant to both Lucas and audiences, is what he
has managed to accomplish on the screen.
Will the film measure up to STAR WARS,
or will Lucas be recycling stale ideas left
over from the first trilogy? A quick look at
the plot for THE PHANTOM MENACE re¬
veals a series of aw fully familiar situations,
but Lucas maintains that while “it’s remi¬
niscent of the old films, it's very different."
The film opens with two Jedi Knights, Qui-
Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan
Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) en route to the
peaceful planet of Naboo,
which is being threatened with
occupation by the greedy Trade
Federation, who in turn, are
fronting for the devious ambi¬
tions of Darth Sidious, the
phantom menace of the title.

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan visit
Queen Amidala (Natalie Port-
man) at her royal palace in
Theed, and persuade her to visit
Coruscant, where she can ap¬
peal directly to the Galactic
Senate for help. Fleeing from
Naboo on the royal spaceship,
they encounter Federation war¬
ships, and after a space battle
are forced to land on Tatooine,
to make repairs to the hyper-
drive. Meanwhile, Darth Sidi¬

ous has dispatched his prime henchman,
Darth Maul to Tatooine, in order to capture
the Queen and dispose of her two Jedi es¬
corts. On Tatooine, Qui-Gon comes in con¬
tact with the nine-year-old Anakin Sky-
walker. and realizing “that the force is
strong with young Skywalkcr,” takes him to
Coruscanl to be trained as a Jedi Knight.

Since Liam Neeson plays the elder Jedi
Master (approximating the role Alec
Guinness played in STAR WARS), it isn't
hard to guess who w ill perish when Qui-
Gon faces Darth Maul in the film's cli¬
matic light-saber duel. Lucas himself not¬
ed the similarity between the two roles,
when asked why THE PHANTOM MEN¬
ACE wasn’t cast with unknown actors—
as he had done previously with S TAR
WARS. “When I did STAR*WARS.” said
Lucas, “1 had the Alec Guinness character,
who is the stalwart, pivotal center of the
movie, and I now have Liam Neeson play¬
ing that same (type of] part. To say that

Liam Neeson is a bigger actor today than
Alec Guinness was 20 years ago, 1 don't
know. Alec Guinness was a very respected
actor. Liam Neeson is a very respected ac¬
tor. Alec Guinness wasn’t Clark Gable,
and Liam Neeson isn’t Tom Cruise. The
other actors, Natalie Portman and Ewan
McGregor, were relatively unknown.
They had been in some small films, but
they weren't really mainstream actors.
I've got a good cast, and it's not cast with
a lot of movie stars.”

No doubt, the one area where the movie
will be exemplary, is in the technical mar¬
vels it will be able to achieve. Lucas's ILM
has been the unsurpassed leader in the ef¬
fects field since the original STAR WARS
debuted in 1**77—despite the constant in¬
ternal turmoil at ILM—where general man¬
agers and high profile effects supervisors
seem to leave w ith alarming regularity. Pro¬
ducer Rick McCallum told The Star VViirs
Insider that ILM will have set new stan¬
dards in the area of character
animation. “And it's not just the
character animation,” he noted.
“They are also creating 3-D en¬
vironments... Between Den¬
nis Muren, John Knoll, Scott
Squires, Rob Coleman and
Scott Farrar, they set standards
themselves. They are pushing
out between 35 to 50 shots a
week, and they are doing it on
budget. They have produced
some extraordinary work.
What we finished six months
ago was bigger than any film
that has been done up to now.
What we are doing now. each
week, is bigger than any pic¬
ture that’s ever been. It is real¬
ly remarkable.”

Enter Darth Maul (Ray Park), ready tor his showdown with Qui-Gon.

10

FORCED BACKWARDS

Why Lucas should have made sequels , not prequels.

The story of familiar characters like Han, Luke, and Chewbacca has already been concluded in RETURN OF THE JEDI.
A long preamble establishing the back story to this is less Interesting than a new story about what happens next.

fundamental mistake has
been made, a mistake so
simple and basic that its
very prosaic nature has
provided a dark cloak of
subterfuge and deception.
And that fundamental mistake is:
the decision to go backwards.

The fact that George Lucas is
going ahead with episodes One,
Two, and Three is highly counter¬
productive to the extension of the
STAR WARS universe beyond
what has been represented by
episodes Four, Five, and Six.
Imagine Memorial Day 1999: the
local multiplex has been monopo¬
lized to the fullest extent by Lu¬
cas' product; all 14 screens are
showing THE PHANTOM MEN¬
ACE. You are lucky enough to
snag tickets. You are standing in a
long, long line which is snaking
around corners and blocks. What
are you feeling as you move at an
agonizingly slow pace toward
your seat? Fear. Because deep in
your heart, you're worried that the
whole thing might not equal the
sum of its parts.

The triumvirate of characters
we’ve come to love — Luke Sky-
walker. Princess Lcia Organa, Han
Solo— will not be present. Those
three characters and their wonder¬
fully told exploits have become so
inculcated in our psyches that it’s
going to be tough to let go. And
consider: no matter that NEW
HOPE, EMPIRE, JEDI are desig¬
nated Four, Five. Six, respectively,
it is just a trick of convention; in
real relative terms, we will always
orient (hem in our minds as One.
Two, Three. The supposed se¬
quences’ only purpose was to give
an old-fashioned, serial-like ambi¬
ence to the project; it has no real
meaning or significance.

No... there is another.... Another
H’iiy, to be specific. Lucas should
have gone forwards instead of

backwards. The events predating
NEW HOPE should be exploited
in some fashion. Telling these tales
in a synthesis of books, comic
books, video games, etc.,
would’ve comprised an ideal vehi¬
cle for getting the stuff out there
(not unlike the multimedia presen¬
tation of SHADOWS). Interesting¬
ly enough, Lucasfilm is consider¬
ing applying the converse of this
concept — l.e., drop the idea of
filming episodes 7 through 9 and
“colonize” them in other media.
Absolutely brilliant idea., but it
should have been done for the first
three films.

We know what’s going to hap¬
pen. We know that young Annakin
becomes corrupted by the Dark
Side. We know that Obi-Wan de¬
feats him in a battle that causes the
injuries which force him onto the
artificial life support system he
wears throughout the first three

films. We know the final resolu¬
tion and absolution of his corrup¬
tion. We know what happens to his
offspring. We know a lot of the
punchlines. When you know the
punchlines, the setups tend to be¬
come pro forma.

Many are predicting how much
the prequcls will gross. It's safe to
say the three movies will have
global grosses of at least $2 billion
after all is said and done. More in¬
teresting — and more telling — is
how much they will do domesti¬
cally. Eliminating the latter two
movies for simplicity sake and fo¬
cusing on 1999, $350-400 million
is estimated. (Don’t start scream¬
ing "TITANIC is dead!" just yet.)
But the domestic gross in 1999
could have been even higher, had
Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, and
Mark Humill been on the bill.

Sure, there’s some question as
to whether Ford would even be in¬

terested at this point, but STAR
WARS launched him on the path
to stardom at a time when he was
about ready to give up his strug¬
gling acting and resign himself to
working as a carpenter, so it’s not
as if he doesn't owe Lucas a little
something. In short, whatever the
obstacles regarding deal points,
they were not insurmountable. But
then Lucasfilm would have had to
deal with big star salaries and de¬
mands for profit participation and
merchandising royalties; unfortu¬
nately, Lucas has traditionally
been reluctant to share power in
his empire, and Lucasfilm would
be reluctant to share its merchan¬
dising largess with anyone.

Nevertheless, there was a way
to make this work, if only there had
been the will. Then we could have
had STAR WARS as it should have
been, going forward instead of
backwards. Steven Mallas

11

KENNY BAKER

R2-D2 returns to a galaxy far, far
away, but avoids revealing any details.

Kenny Baker appears outside the shell of the galaxy's most famous diminutive
droid, R2-D2. Baker essays the role once again, in THE PHANTOM MENACE.

f all the actors who ap¬
peared in STAR WARS,
THE EMPIRE STRIKES
BACK, and RETURN OF
THE JEDI, only a few
have been signed up to appear in
the new round of prequels. Among
them is Kenny Baker, who will
reprise his role as the galaxy's fa¬
vorite droid. R2-D2, With the un¬
believably intense level of secrecy
surrounding the new movie. Baker
isn't saying much about his return
to the STAR WARS saga, although
his scenes were completed months
ago for THE PHANTOM MEN¬
ACE, which is due out in May.

“It's a trade secret, like in any
business," Baker explained at a
Wizard World convention in
Chicago. “We cannot give away
the secrets, or else we’ll be cutting
our throats."

Even though he's mum about
the new STAR WARS films—se¬
crecy agreements all the cast
members were forced to sign
made sure of that—the 64-year-
old Baker is happy to talk about
his previous STAR WARS ex¬
ploits, as well as his other film
credits, which include Terry
Gilliam’s TIME BANDITS. Jim
Henson's LABYRINTH and the
Oscar-winning AMADEUS.

Fans often ask the diminutive
Baker what it was like to fit inside
R2-D2 for a day of filming. He
compared the experience to work¬
ing inside a trash can, **lt was
claustrophobic,” he said. “It was
hot, uncomfortable, and painful at
times. But eventually I got used to
it, and it was like home away from
home.”

One of the things that made the
STAR WARS films so wonderful

for filmgoers was the incredible
set designs. A favorite of Baker’s
was the layout for Dagobah, the
primordial home of Yoda the Jedi
master. “It was an amazing set," he
said. “It was a big tray full of hor¬
rible water and snakes and frogs.
You’d swear you were in a
swamp.”

It might be a shock to some
STAR WARS fanatics that R2-D2
wasn’t Baker’s favorite role. Fidgit
in TIME BANDITS gets that hon¬

or. “It was just more fun to make,”
Baker said of the imaginative film.
“Terry Gilliam's enthusiasm is
great.”

Baker, who also played Paploo
the Ewok in JEDI. is thrilled that
the STAR WARS phenomenon is
still going strong, and that several
generations of fans still support
him and the other actors at their
“Men Behind the Masks” appear¬
ances. “I’m surprised it's lasted so
long,” he said. Russell Lissau

CAST & CREW

by Frank Garcia

Roth newcomers and sea¬
soned pros earned acclaim on
the STAR WARS films.
Here’s a rundown of what
many of them arc up to today.

Mark Hamill

I Luke Sky walker)

After the SW trilogy. Hamill
has remained active as an actor in
a wide range of platforms. He has
appeared on stage as AMADEUS
and THE ELEPHANT MAN. He
has been the voice of The Joker in
BATMAN TI IE ANIMATED
SERIES and has contributed his
vt>cal talents to other animated
series. He was Col. Christopher
Blair in the Wing Commander CD-
ROMs. Close to his heart is a
comic book titled THE BLACK
PEARL, from a screenplay with
his cousin and partner. Eric
Johnson. Hamill has also guest
starred in THE FLASII {I WO) and
THE OUTER LIMITS (1W6).

Harrison Ford

(Han Solot

Ford’s career changed forever
as a result of the SW trilogy. He is
now one of the most popular
actors in contemporary cinema.
Starring in the INDIANA JONES
trilogy in the 1980s for George
Lucas and Steven Spielberg made
him a rich man and a household
name. He garnered an Oscar
nomination for WITNESS < 1985)
and critical acclaim for starring in
THE FUGITIVE (1995) and AIK
FORCE ONE (1997). His latest
film was SIX DAYS. SEVEN
NIGHTS with Anne lleche. He’s
married to Melissa Muthison who
wrote E.T. (1982).

Carrie Fisher

(Princess Ixiai
Fisher has made 24 TV and
feature films since S TAR WARS
in 1977. notably THE BLUES
BROTHERS (1980). HANNAH
AND HER SISTERS (1986), and
WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
(1989), Today, she’s an acclaimed
author with three novels. Her first
book. Postcards front the Edge
(1990). was made into a film
starring Meryl Streep. She's also
one of Hollywood's hottest script
doctors. Her uncrcdited
handiwork is on such
blockbusters as LETHAL
WEAPON 3. HOOK.
OUTBREAK, and THE
WEDDING SINGER. Currently,
she’s working on a screenplay of
her hook Surrender the Pink.

12

A versatile, underrated actor, Mark Hamill continues to work on stage and screen since playing Luke in STAR WARS.

Anthony Daniels

(C-3PO)

A British actor with mime
training, Daniels has remained
verv busy in the SW universe. In

J *

addition to recreating the voice of
C-3PO for all three of the National
Public Radio productions of the
SW trilogy. Daniels voiced the
character for the animated series
DROIDS (1985). He has also
appeared in YOUNG INDIANA
JONES CHRONICLES’TV
movie "Attack of the Hawkmen"
directed by Ben Burn And he has
narrated audiobitok adaptations of
Star Wars novels. In EPISODE
ONE: THE PHANTOM
MENACE, he reprises his role as
C-3PO.

Sir Alec Guinness

I Obi-wan Kenobi)

Considered one of the finest
actors of his generation, thanks to
Ealing comedies and to dramatic
work for David Lean, Guinness
brought a stamp of respectable
authority to his role in the SW
trilogy, lie went on to work with
Lean again on A PASSAGE TO
INDIA (1984), appeared in the
Dickens adaptation LITTLE
DORRIT (1988), and showed up
in Steven Sordebcrg’s KAFKA
(1991), In his autobiographical A
Positively Final Appearance, he
did not wax enthusiastic on the
subject of SW: “...a refurbished
STAR WARS is on somewhere or
everywhere. 1 have no intention of
re-visiting any galaxy. I shrivel
inside each time it is mentioned.

T wenty years ago, when the film
was first shown, it had a

freshness; also a sense of moral
good and fun. Then I began to be
uneasy at the influence it might he
having." Regarding a child who
had seen the film numerous times,
he added. “...I just hope the
lad...is not living in a fantasy
world of secondhand, childish
banalities.”

Peter Cushing

(Grand MofTTarkinl

After a long and illustrious film
career, beginning with THE MAN
IN THE IRON MASK (1939).
encompassing several brilliant
performances ad Baron
Frankenstein, and ending with
BIGGLES: ADVENTURES IN
TIME {1986). Cushing died of
cancer in 1994 at the age of 81. His
many appearances included horror
and fantasy classic films such as
CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN
(1956), THE HORROR OF
DRACUl A < 1958), and THE
MUMMY (1959).

James Earl Jones

(the voice of Darth Yaderl

For someone who used to have
a stuttering problem, Jones has
done very well, with a long and
distinguished Hollywood career
that continues today. After JEDl
he was the enemy in CONAN
THE BARBARIAN (1982). He
was Admiral Greer in three Tom
C’lancv film adaptations: T HE
HUNT FOR RED OCTOBER
(1990). PATRIOT GAMES (1992)
and ( LEAR AND PRESENT
DANGER (1994). He is known
throughout the world as the “voice
of CNN.”

Billy Dee Williams

(Lando Calrissian)

Williams is a busy Hollywood
actor with 45 feature or TV
movies in his credits. After
EMPIRE and JEDl, he continued
to work in variety of films and TV
projects, including BATMAN
(1989) as District Attorney Harvey
Dent, He's appeared in two mini-
series. CHIEFS (1983) with
Charlton Heston, and HEAVEN &
HELL: NORTH & SOUTH.
BOOK III (1994). He had a
recurring role in DYNASTY
(1984-1986) and in LONESOME
DOVE—THE SERIES (1992).

Frank Oz

(Yoda)

Known to fans as Miss Piggy
from THE MUPPETS. Oz is also
a film producer and director. He
produced three of the Muppet
feature films: MUPPET
CHRISTMAS CAROL (1992),
MUPPET TREASURE ISLAND
(1996) and THE GREAT
MUPPET CAPER (1981). He
directed the musical LITTLE
SHOP OF HORRORS (1986). the
comedy WHAT ABOUT BOB?
(1991) with Richard Dreyfuss, and
THE INDIAN IN THE
CUPBOARD (1995). In THE
PHANTOM MENACE, he returns
as Yoda.

Ian McDiarmid

( I he hmpcnir)

A graduate of the Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts in
England. McDiarmid is primarily
a stage actor who has completed a

number of visible television and
film roles. He was in
DRAGONS!.AYER (1981) as
Brother Jacobus. He was in
YOUNG INDIANA JONES
CHRONICLES’ “Paris, October
1916, '* scripted by Carrie Fisher,
allegedly as Indiana Jones' uncle.
He was also directed by Yoda
himself. Frank Oz, in DIRTY
ROTTEN SCOUNDRELS (1988).
In THE PHANTOM MENACE,
he reprises his JEDl role as
Senator Palpatine.

Ralph McQuarrie

(Production Illustrator 1

With a series of beautiful
concept paintings, McQuarrie
helped George Lucas visualize
and “sell" THE STAR WARS to
20th Century Fox executives. In
the post-Star Wars era. he
contributed his imaginative talents
to CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF
THE THIRD KIND (1977). STAR
TREK: I MP (1979) and won an
Oscar for his work on COCOON
(1985). Recently, he returned to
that “galaxy far, far away" by
illustrating two books; a “pop-up”
book about Tatooine and the
illustrated Star Wars Universe
written by Kevin J. Anderson.

Phil Tippett

(Stop Motion Animation!

The man responsible for that
little holographic chess game
aboard the Millennium Falcon
between R2-D2 and Chewbacca is
now one of Hollywood's most
experienced special effects artists.
His work has been displayed in
DRAGONSLAYER (1981),

RO BOCOP (1987), INDIANA
JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF
DOOM (1984), and JURASSIC
PARK (1993). With the advent of
digital special effects, he now
designs creatures and directs
creature movements, as in
DRAGONHEART (1996) and
STARSHIP TROOPERS (1997).

C-3P0's Anthony Daniels continues to
be involved in the STAR WARS
universe, appearing In the new film.

13

01 all the actors in STARS WARS. Harrison Ford is the one to become a bona fide big time Hollywood movie star.

Ben Burtt

(Special Dialogue & Sound SFX)

Hired to “record sounds" for
SW. Burtt won a special
achievement Oscar for ground¬
breaking sound effects (hat gave
voices to R2-D2 and Chewbacca.
1-ater. he garnered another Oscar
for sound on INDIANA JONHS
AND THE LAST CRUSADE
(1989). He directed the IMAX
film SPECIAL EFFECTS:
ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN
(1995) which documented, in part,
the making of the SW Special
Edition films. In THE PHANTOM
MENACE, he supplies new sound
effects and editing.

John Williams

(Composer)

Williams was a respected film
and TV composer before SW.
Afterward, he scored the
INDIANA JONES trilogy. He has
the distinction of scoring almost
all of Spielberg's films including
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. E.T.
and SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
John has scored over 75 films and
won five Oscars. In THE
PHANTOM MENACE, he returns
to that galaxy “far, far away."

Stuart Freeborn

(Makeup designer)

Freeborn is one of England's
most respected makeup designers.
He’s worked on many classic
films such as BRIDGE ON THE
RIVER KWAI (1957) DR
STRANCiELOVE (I9b4) and
2001 (1968). After SW. he worked
on the SUPERMAN films (1978)
and (1980). Now in his eighties,
he has retired from feature films.

John Dykstra

(Special Effects Supervisor)

Because of his photographic
innovations, the special effects
camera that helped make STAR

WARS successful was dubbed the
"Dyksiraflex." Immediately after
winning an Oscar for Best Visual
Effects, he was hired by television
producer Glen A. Larson to create
the visual effects for
BATTLESTAR GALACTICA
(1978). Later, he helped save
STAR TREK THE MOTION
PICTURE (1979) by joining
forces with colleague Douglas
Trumbull to create the films’
visual effects. He continued to
refine his craft with such films as
LIFEFORC'E (1985) and
INVADERS FROM MARS
(1986). His most recent credits are
BATMAN FOREVER (1995) and
BATMAN & ROBIN (1997).

Richard Edlund

{Miniature and Optical Effect si

After JEDI. Edlund provided
visual effects for at least 19 films.
In 1983, he set up his own
facility. Boss Films, in Marina
Del Rev. and produced effects for
2010(1984), GHOSTBUSTERS
(1985). POLTERGEIST II: THE
OTHER SIDE (1985), DIE
HARD (1988). GHOST (1990),
ALIEN 3(1992) and AIR
FORCE ONE (1997). In August
1997, he was forced to shut down
Boss Films.

Gary Kurtz

(Producer, SW & ESB)

After ESB, Garv produced
THE DARK CRYSTAL(1982).
directed bv Frank Oz, and then he
took us on a RETURN TO OZ
(1985). before diving into the
SLIPSTREAM (1989) with Mark
Hamill. Gary’s latest producing
credit was THE STEAL (1994).

Irvin Kershner

(Director. ESB)

After EMPIRE. Kershner
helped Sean Connery return to the
role that made him famous as 007

in the “renegade” James Bond
production. NEVER SAY NEVER
AGAIN (1983). He directed a
1985 episode of AMAZING
STORIES. “Hell Toupee." for
Steven Spielberg. More recently,
he directed ROBOCQP 2 (1990)
and the two-hour television pilot
of SEAQUEST in 1993.

Lawrence Kasdan

(Screenwriter ESB & RoJ)

His directorial debut. BODY
HEAT (1981), became a hit,
followed bv THE BIG CHILL
(1983). SILVERADO (1985).

THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST
(1988). GRAND CANYON
(1991) and THE BODYGUARD
(1992), His latest film is
MUMFORD (1999).

Richard Marquand

(Director, KoJl

After JEDI, Marquand filmed
UNTIE SEPTEMBER (1984). a
romantic drama w ith Karen Allen,
then JAGGED EDGE (1985). a
courtroom drama with Jeff
Bridges. Sadly, HEART’S EDGE
in 1987 was his final film. He died
in September 1987.

Dennis Muren

(Miniature and Optical Effects)

A winner of six Oscars.

Muren continues to push the
envelope in the visual effects
field. Having worked on a total
of 14 films, he shares Oscars
with his colleagues for E.T.

(1982). INDIANA JONES AND
THE TEMPLE OF DOOM
(1984), THE ABYSS (1989), and
TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT
DAY (1991). Most notably, he
helped bring the dinosaurs alive
in JURASSIC PARK (1993) and
THE LOST WORLD:

JURASSIC PARK (1997). His
work for Lucasfilm continues in
THE PHANTOM MENACE.

ttention, George Lucas:
Darth Vader wants an
apology. First you had the
nerve to kill him. and to
make matters worse, when
you finally unmasked him. it was¬
n’t even his real face. So you've
got to understand why Vader —or
at least David Prowse. the actor
who portrayed the Dark Lord of
the Sith in the first STAR WARS
trilogy — is a trifle miffed.

“I've always felt it was a real
dirty stunt,” the 63-year-old
Prowse said. “Eve never, ever for¬
given them for that. There was no
need for that at all.”

That’s not to say the STAR
WARS experience has soured for
Prowse, who has been touring the
world with several of his former
co-stars as part of the "Men Be¬
hind the Masks” tour (see page
16). Prowse loves the renewed
publicity, much of which is the re¬
sult of the re-release of the origi¬
nal trilogy and the anticipation for
the upcoming prcqucls. “Every¬
thing went quiet for a while, from
the mid-1980s to. like. 1993," he
said. "Then it started to pick up
slowly, and then there was the rc-
releasc. and it's been tremendous
ever since."

Prowse thoroughly enjoys
meeting fans, young and old alike.
Despite his on-screen persona as
the universe’s meanest bad guy, as
well as the fact that at 6-fcct, 6-
inches. he's quite an imposing fig¬
ure. Prowse is ever the polite Eng¬
lishman. He especially likes meet¬
ing enthusiastic fans in their late
twenties who saw the films when
they first came out, people who
treat him like a screen idol. "I’m
amazed by it. to be perfectly hon¬
est,” Prowse said. “I'm honored."

It's a credit to STAR WARS
that a science-fiction film made
20 years ago is a viable franchise,
and that people who didn't even
see the pictures the first time
around are so crazy about the
characters. Prowse is quick to ex¬
plain what he believes to be the
secret of the trilogy's success.

"It’s a combination of a whole
variety of different things,” he
said. “You had a first-class story,
likable characters and sensational
special effects, and it was in a fu¬
turistic setting. And it came at the
right time." The simplistic good-
vcrsus-evil plot, reminiscent of
the adventure serials and swash¬
buckling pirate films of the 1930s
and ’40s, was key. “It was like
good cowboys vs. bad cowboys,”
Prowse said. “You always knew
exactly what was going on.”

STAR WARS wasn’t Prowse's
first acting gig. but it certainly is
his most famous. He appeared as
the monster in Hammer Films’

14

David prowse

Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith,
unmasks to meet his grateful public.

David Prowse (left, with Alec Guinness} reveals the face that George Lucas kept hidden in the STAR WARS trilogy.

HORROR OF FRANKENSTEIN
and FRANKENSTEIN AND THE
MONSTER FROM HELL. He al¬
so can be seen in A CLOCK¬
WORK ORANGE and JABBER-
WOCKY. Before his film career,
he was a bodybuilder and
weightlifting champion who was
recognized as Britain's Strongest
Man. a title he held from 1965 to
1970. In the 1970s, he even trained
Christopher Reeve for his starring
role in SUPERMAN. Prowse is
still in fantastic shape, despite
arthritis that has troubled him
since childhood and a pair of hip
replacements that were needed af¬
ter a weightlifting accident in
1988. In fact, Prowse used his star
power to create “Dave Prowse s

Force Against Arthritis,” a founda¬
tion that raises money for arthritis
research and the care of people
who suffer from the disease.

He doesn’t let the pain get in
the way of his public appear¬
ances. When one of his hips was
especially bad last year, he
showed up on crutches. He knows
that the least he can do is sign his
name for fans who sometimes
travel hundreds of miles to meet
him. “I love these shows; I really
do,” Prowse said. “What more
could you wish for than a conven¬
tion like this when people queue
up for hours, tell you how good
your work was and throw money
at you?”

Prowse hasn’t been able to

learn any detail about the prequcls
from fellow tour-member Kenny
Baker, but then this kind of secre¬
cy has been around since THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. “Af¬
ter STAR WARS, they got para¬
noid about secrecy,” Prowse re¬
called. “We never got copies of the
script — we only had our pages.”

The level of mystery was so
high during EMPIRE that Prowse
didn't even have the real dialogue
for the famous scene in which
Vader reveals to Luke Skywalkcr
(hat the young Jedi-in-training is
his son. The admission that
shocked millions of filmgoers was
dubbed in during post-production.
“I didn't actually know I was Luke
Skywalkcr’s father until I saw it in

the cinema,” Prowse said.

Even though we hear James
Earl Jones’ voice when Vader
speaks, Prowse ’s powerful, dra¬
matic movements contributed to
the character’s reputation as a
great screen heavy. His sweeping
gestures, strong stride and
clenched fists were deliberately
created to show Vader ’s emotions,
even though audiences couldn't
see his face. “Darth Vader is a very
physical character, and I’ve always
been a physical actor,” Prowse
said. “I have this ability to convey
emotions through body movement.
I don’t need dialogue — I don’t
need facial expressions.”

Prowse said he would like Vad-
cr to be remembered in the years
to come as the silver screen's most
likeable villain. “I think that’s the
case, because Darth Vader is the
villain you love to hate.” he ex¬
plained. “He was a villain who had
likeable qualities about him.”

That’s doesn't mean Prowse is
happy with Vadcr’s redemption at
the end of JEDI. “He never, ever
should have turned to good,”
Prowse fumed. “And killing him
off was the worst idea ever. He
was such a dynamic character that
they could’ve been writing stories
about him forever. I’m eternally
grateful for everything Lucasfilm
did for me. but it could have been
even more sensational.”

Prowse said he was kept in the
dark during the filming of JEDI
about Vader's death, as well as the
infamous unmasking scene, which
featured another actor, Sebastian
Shaw, instead of Prowse. “In RE¬
TURN OF THE JEDI, they were
doing everything they could not to
use me," he said. “They kept using
my stunt double.” He wishes he
could have been inside the suit
when Mark Hamilt removed Vad-
er’s menacing mask. “It would
have been the icing on the cake,
having played Darth Vader for sev¬
en years. I just think they went
about it in a very underhanded
manner, and it left a very sour taste
in my mouth.”

Despite his unhappiness over
Vader’s demise. Prowse said he’d
love to return to that galaxy far. far
away. Fans are expecting Anakin
Skywalker to fall prey to the Dark
Side of the Force and turn into
Darth Vader in Episode II or
Episode III, and they're going to
need someone to fit inside the
heavy black suit again.

“I’d love to reprise the role,” he
said. “Nothing would give me
greater pleasure. And I think for
some reason if they don’t offer me
the Darth Vader role, the fans
would object. I think they would
revolt. They’re a very loyal
crowd " Russell Lissau

15

THE MEN BEHIND THE MASKS

Unseen actors unmask for their fans.

By Russell Lissau

There he is, jusl a few feel away. The
most feared bounty hunter in the galaxy.
The most ruthless manhunter ever born.
Just the name itself makes knees buckle,
foreheads bead up with sweat and blaster
hands shake: Boba Fctt. And now we're
face to face. I approach. Cautiously. “Hi.
Could you please autograph this 8x10 for
me? Make it out to Russell." That’s right,
space travelers. Boba Fett has sold out.

Of course, it’s not really Fett. The
man scrawling his name with a gold-ink
pen before a line of a hundred fans at a
recent comic book convention is really
Jeremy Bulloch, the actor who donned
Fett's Mandalorian battle armor in THE
EMPIRE STRIKES BACK and RE¬
TURN OF THE JEDI. Bulloch and sev¬
eral of his less-recognizable co-stars
from the STAR WARS trilogy—includ¬
ing Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), David
Prowsc (Darth Vader), Anthony Daniels
(C-3PO), Kenny Baker (R2-D2), and
Warwick Davis (Wicket the Ewok)—
have been touring the nation for months
as The Men Behind the Masks.

Thanks to the never-ending popularity
of the STAR WARS films, as well as the
overwhelming success of the 20th anniver¬
sary versions of the movies, the cast mem¬
bers often appear in various combinations at
comic-book and science-fiction conventions,
where they happily greet fans, sign hundreds

Jewny Bulloch, who played bounty hunter Boba
Fett In the STAR WARS trilogy, poses with two
look-alikes at a recent comic book convention.

Actor David Prowse makes a personal appearance
accompanied by his alter ego. Darth Vader.

of autographs, and pose for pictures, making
a buck where they can. The Men Behind the
Masks tour was put together by the people at
Icons Authentic Replicas, a California firm
that sells prop reproductions and collectible
miniatures like lightsabers, X-wing fighters,
and memorabilia from other science fiction
films. As with most celebrity public appear¬
ances, the actors get a fee up front and get
paid per autograph. Plenty of glossy 8x10
photographs and actions figures are for sale
at a nearby table, too, for those fans who for¬
got to bring their favorite STAR WARS
knick-knacks to the show. Lucasfilm isn't
very involved with the ‘Masks’effort, espe¬
cially since George Lucas is putting his ener¬
gy into the new STAR WARS films. But the
company has given the tour its blessing. Of¬
ficials say they’re delighted the actors are oul
meeting their fans. “We're real happy, and
they seem to really enjoy it.’’ said Lucasfilm
spokeswoman Jeanne Cole from the compa¬
ny headquarters in San Rafael, California,
“it's definitely something that’s really impor¬
tant to the fans. And anything that can keep

our fans excited is good news for us—
where would we be without the fans?”

At the Chicago Comiconn, Bulloch
was joined on the 'Men Behind the
Masks’ dais by Prowsc and Mayhew.
Baker was supposed to be in Chicago,
too, but he had to skip the gig because of
a more important engagement: working
on the upcoming STAR WARS prequel,
THE PHANTOM MENACE. “Anthony
Daniels and Warwick Davis are in¬
volved, too, but that’s kind of hush-
hush,” someone said at the time, al¬
though it has been common knowledge
among fans for some time the two droids
will appear in alt the STAR WARS films.
Bulloch and Mayhew, meanwhile, are
happy to take short breaks during a
marathon autograph session to talk about
what it’s like having played two of the
most-recognized characters in science-
fiction history—roles that have become
international icons—while they them¬
selves are all but anonymous. Bulloch,
for one, is thrilled with the attention. A
native Englishman who has been an ac¬
tor since he dropped out of school at age
II, Bulloch also has appeared in several
episodes of DOCTOR WHO and three
James Bond films as Q’s assistant. But
none of his other films has generated so
much interest in a character he’s played, as
evidence by the numerous fan websites
posted in the masked man's honor. If you
ever wondered about all the secret gadgets
in Fett’s armor, where the mystery man
came from or why braided Wookiee scalps
hang off his shoulder, one of these sites
surely will tell you. “It’s bizarre,” Bulloch
says of Fett’s growing fan base. “I don’t
know why he’s so popular. It was just four
lines, five lines. It is the fewest lines I’ve
ever had as an actor! But," he said, paus¬
ing, “the costume is cool.” As he finishes
the thought, almost on cue, two fans
dressed in homemade (but still very im¬
pressive) Mandalorian armor arrive at the
signing area. They approach their hero
silently, the crowd parting in awe as they
walk up to Bulloch. He eats it up like candy.
“That’s cool,” he says, grinning. “We must
have a photo op.”

Bulloch said he wouldn't be disappointed
if George Lucas doesn’t come calling for

16

Above: The name is familiar, but the face.,. Darth Vader welcomes fans to the Men Behind the Masks tour,
which showcased the actors whose faces you didn't see. Below: (I to r) Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Warwick
Davis (Wicket the Ewok), Kenny Baker (R2D2), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett). and David Prowse (Darth Vader)

•}^ r

* - ; ' ; . fc

f p all

if*

Ear

CCIt’s wonderful. There’s
more reaciton this time
than before. You’ve got a
new generation of fans,
and there’s more money
and more interest. 9 9

—Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca—

Boba Felt to make an appearance in the up¬
coming STAR WARS prequels. There’s def¬
initely room for the character, however: de¬
pending on whose version of STAR WARS
history you believe, the Mandalorlan war¬
riors fought for the Empire during the Clone
Wars. Rumors floating through cyberspace
already say Fett will appear in at least one of
the new films. "Who knows?” Bulloch
shrugs. "It would be nice. But if not, I had a
wonderful time on the last two.”

Peter Mayhew might be the only man
behind the mask who actually resembles
the character he played in STAR WARS.
With bushy hair and mustache, it’s easy to
see how the 7-foot, three-inch Mayhew
could be transformed into everyone’s fa¬
vorite Wookiec. Mayhew is far more gentle
than his hot-tempered alter-ego, however.
No matter how many people are in line, he
greets every one cordially, chit-chats a little
bit, and signs whatever piece of memorabil¬
ia they present. Most of the items he’s
handed arc photographs or action figures; a
few fans have brought copies of the limit¬
ed-edition STAR WARS Monopoly board
game. One fan. far too young to have ever
seen the STAR WARS films during their
initial run, politely asked Mayhew and the
other actors to sign his Darth Vader Hal¬
loween costume. I’m never going to wear
this again," the boy said as he walked away
with his marvelous prize. “I don’t want to
ruin it.”

"Look!" Mayhew exclaimed, opening
his long arms to gesture at the fans. “This is
at a comic book convention. And the reac¬
tion here is only a small percentage of the
national reaction." Like Bulloch, Mayhew
is pleased to be a part of the renewed hub¬
bub over STAR WARS. “I love the atten¬
tion. I could go and do this forever,” he
said. “It’s absolutely wonderful. There’s
more reaction this time than there was the
first time. You've got a new generation of
fans, and there's more money around.
There’s totally more interest.” Mayhew
thinks he knows why, too. "Because there
hasn’t been anything like it since 1983,” he
said with confidence, “since the release of
JEDt." And what happens if Lucasfilm tries
to trot them all out again in three decades
for the 50th anniversary? “I should be there,
no problem," Mayhew said with an earnest
smile, sticking out his large right hand for
yet another shake.

17

By Chuck Wagner

With THE 13TH FLOOR, Josef Rusnak
completes an odyssey from German film
school to Hollywood director with a genre
movie to his credit. But Rusnak did not
grow up dreaming of making science fic¬
tion movies; his association with film be¬
gan almost by accident.

“Originally, my film interest was in do¬
ing documentaries. 1 was studying in Mu¬

nich. having moved out of my hometown,
Pforzheim, at IK. 1 was studying German
literature, history and a bit of philosophy.
After two years or so, in my class there was
this girl—there's always a girl! She told me
about this film school, and she knew some¬
body. and he made it happen. I met this guy,
and it turned out to be the man who, ten
years later, became the director of photog¬
raphy for Roland Emmerich! This is how 1
got into the Munich Film School, the same
school where everyone in Germany went:
Wim Wenders and Roland, etc."

Rusnak's first film. COLD FEVER, won
the German film award for Best Direction
in 1984. ‘i always used to write the movies
I do. Thai’s w hat you learn in the Munich
Film School. No one would write anything
for anyone except for himself. I wrote my
first feature when 1 was 22. That was at the
end of film school. 1 got some financing to¬
gether, and I won. It got released in Ger¬
many and was sold all over the world. Not
too bad for a start! Then I went on to do
some French and Italian TV. adaptations of
novels, that kind of thing. 13111 FLOOR is
really my fourth feature, and my first real
genre film. All the others were a European
mixture of genre and private, creative expe¬
riences you can have with genres.”

One of those films, a comic piece called
PICNIC AT CHECKPOINT C HARLIE,
teamed Rusnak with actor Armin Mueller-
Stahl, with whom he worked on 13TH
FLOOR. "It was the last feature done in
Berlin before the Wall came down.
Mueller-Stahl was one of my leads. This is
how I met him. The film was a black come¬
dy on the spy genre, but not a true genre
film. We were playing with the genre."

And the path that brought Rusnak to
13TH FLOOR? "I met Roland Emmerich a
long time ago—ldK2 or something. When I
attended film school, the production man¬
ager of the film school was looking for stu¬
dents to work on Roland's film, which he
did in a co-production with the film school.
I ended up becoming the gaffer in Roland’s
high school movie! And that's how we met
for the first time.”

They bumped into each other on other

Time catches up with ’ 60 s

Top: Vincent D’Onolrio about to enter the virtual
reality world of THE 13TH FLOOR. Middle: Josef
Rusnak directs D'Onofrio as a character in the VR
world. Bottom: Armin Mueller-Stahl enjoys the
pleasure of the film's 1937 alternate reality.

sci-fi concept.

occasions, hut nothing quite clicked. “We
started to develop two scripts, hut always
the production of one of his movies came in
between," said Rusnak. “While I was wait¬
ing for him to get back from STARGATE, I
started to work on other projects. I went
hack to Germany and shot a couple of TV
productions and then came back to L.A.
again. Then we talked about another genre
film—more along the line of a science fic¬
tion thriller. And those days, there was a lot
of virtual reality buzz going on. Both of us
knew this novel out of the ’60s called
Simulcrum 3. It features a most convincing
story outline to the subject of VR, In it, you
have a hero who realizes on his search dur¬
ing a murder mystery, that his own world is
a computer generated simulation."

In the early ‘70s. Rainer Werner Fass-
bender had done a German TV series called
WORLD ON THE WIRE based on the
same novel. "It was a dialog-y TV series,
with Fassbenders good points, but it was
nothing like a feature film—-a huge, inter¬
national feature film—would require. And
Fassbender s emphasis was to basically re¬
produce the whole novel, instead of really
working on the idea.”

And the idea was ahead of its time. Re¬
call that computer chips were invented in
the 1960s and any real power to perform VR
operations arid the Internet lay well in the
future. “Nobody even could think about the
spread of the information superhighway
with PC's in each home. So the book was re¬
ally science fiction out of a completely new
environment. In the '90s when you read this
novel, it read like an incredible, prescient
piece of drama. There is no science fiction
anymore. All the details are out there. This
guy wrote the novel in 1903. and in it
there’s a computer simulation where they
call their characters II) units.'All the ID
units were stored in ‘memory drums,'"

Using the novel as the controlling idea.
Rusnak modified the existing script—the
original script adaptation was by Ravel
Centano-Rodriguez—concerning a murder
mystery which becomes embroiled in the
machinations of a parallel universe con¬
tained in computers. The parallel universe
is set in 1937.

“Roland and I spent a year and a half fig¬
uring out how the story could be skimped
down and all these characters—-the author
used 15-IK characters to tell his story—re-

The film explores Ihe possibility of computer-simulated universes, where people only believe they are real.

duccd. This story takes place in two time
frames, the ‘90s and 1937. To go to the 1937
world, you hook your consciousness up
with the computer, and you start to live in a
character which this computer stores. It's
somewhat like playing a kill-thrill video
game, where after you kill the two tanks or
20 beings or whatever, you forget about
everything around you and start to become
the character. Terminator 3 or 4 or whatever.
In this computer simulation in the film, you
have not just five or six characters to pick
from; you have thousands. And the charac¬
ters in this simulation are not aware that
they are artificially-created characters. They
have a life of their own."

On set, the actors allowed that they were
intrigued by the script. And handling actors
is yet another skill that directors learn,
whatever their schooling. “You're trained."
Rusnak allowed, "but mainly you're trained
by doing. I remember very well the times

when, after the second shooting day, your
actor doesn't show up anymore because he
thinks you’re a prick! You have to go
through a certain pain to find a way to deal
with and work with actors."

But Rusnak had no such problems with
his 13TH FLOOR cast. "This is almost a
philosophy of Centropolis. You spend so
much time of your life shooting a movie
and dealing with a movie, you want to work
with people you enjoy working with. Craig
Bicrko, Grelchcn Mol, Annin Mueller-
Slahl and Dennis Haysbert loved the script
and they had a lot of respect for the script.
And it it happens that the director is part of
the script process, that makes it very easy.
You don't have to prove that you're able to
do certain things. And Roland was involved
emotionally in the whole process (even if
Godzilla took a lot of his time). I worked
with Roland for one and a half years just on
the treatment to make it right. □

19

An all-star cast brings a little modern

Ouring a break in the filming of William Shakespeare's A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S
DREAM, director Michael Hoffman talks with Kevin Kline, who plays Bottom.

By Douglas Eby

In Shakespeare’s A MID¬
SUMMER NIGHT S DREAM,

Hermia (Anna Fricl) and
Lysandcr (Dominic West) flee
into a forest to escape Hermia’s
father, who wishes her to marry
Demetrius (Christian Bale),
who follows Hermia into the
woods, and is followed in turn
by Helena (Calista Flockhart),
who adores Demetrius. The four
characters find themselves at
the secret home of the fairies,
surrounded by water nymphs
and satyrs. Then the trickster
Puck (Stanley Tucci) gives the
four a secret love potion that
causes emotional chaos among
them. A band of actors shows
up to put on a play, which is in¬
terrupted when star actor Bot¬
tom (Kevin Kline) gets involved in battles
between Oberon (Rupert Everett), King of
the Fairies, and Titania, the Queen
(Michelle Pfeiffer).

Filming a story by Shakespeare has been
“endlessly, ridiculously, rewarding" said
writer-director Michael Hoffman, who has
chosen to retain the original language, ex¬
cept for a couple of “ad-libbed moments
that were too good not to use." Hoffman has
been developing his adaptation “for a long
time" but not actively. “It’s something I
talked to Kevin Kline about years ago, just
sort of in passing, when we were talking
about Shakespeare and film, and I was ar¬
guing there’s really not a way to make a
movie of this play. But then a couple of
years later I sat down, and in three weeks
did this adaptation, and turned it into Fox
and they green-lit it two weeks later. But I
guess I’d been absorbing it, thinking it, for
a long time before that."

There have been several films of the sto¬
ry: a 1935 version directed by Max Rein¬
hardt, with James Cagney as Bottom, and
Mickey Rooney as Puck; an early ’70s at¬
tempt with Diana Rigg and David Warner;
and a Miramax-financed filming of a popu¬
lar Royal Shakespeare Company produc¬
tion a few years ago. “I think that movie
just came out and went away," said Hoff¬
man. “So I was very aware of the fact there
were versions, and none of them had really

worked. It’s a play I know really well, from
acting in it twice, and I’ve directed it a cou¬
ple of times, and I thought a lot about why
it was problematic. It’s sort of organized
like an essay about love. You don't have a
main character like Macbeth, or a central
relationship like Romeo and Juliet, that
lakes you through the story. This is a lot of
people whose problems have parallels in
the world, and it's all about love and trans¬
formation. But a film is hard to organize
that way. An audience is much more de¬
manding about having a clear point of view
in a film than in theater, where you can or¬
ganize a piece around ideas."

One solution to this challenge that Hoff¬
man found was to expand the role of Bot¬
tom, one of a group of tradesmen known as
the Mechanicals (from working with their
hands) who meet to prepare a play for the
wedding of a Duke, Theseus (David
Strathairn). The group is lead by Quince the
Carpenter, and includes Bottom the Weaver,
Snug the Joiner, Flute the Bellows-mender.
Snout the Tinker, and Starveling the Tailor.
Hoffman says he created a story for Bottom
(Kline) that “doesn’t exist in the play, that
produced some opportunities in terms of his
relationship with Titania that I have never
seen before. I think I’ve seen the play
around 30 times. What I used arc simple
ideas, not grand ideas.”

Regarding the film's setting, he noted.

“It's very important anytime
you’re dealing with fantasy, to
try to keep it free of very specif¬
ic time and place. So it is a kind
of 19th century world, in a kind
of Italy, but it is not the Italy of
THE LEOPARD or the film
190(1. Particularly because it’s a
time that is not so far away from
us, it really had to feel free from
history.” But the characters do
have clothing of that period,
and ride bicycles. “One of the
reasons I liked the late 19th cen¬
tury setting is that it is in part a
lovers’ story, who enter the for¬
est and experience a peculiar
transformation, coming out of it
more mature and more fully
formed, and that seemed to me
to have a lot to do with condi¬
tioning and the subversion of
conditioning. And 1 thought the
late Victorian clothing — the long sleeves,
and high necks, the corsets, and the stiff¬
ness, and the way the clothes kind of wear
the people — would be a good visual
metaphor for the conditioning. And also,
they can lose those clothes, and rip those
clothes. The forest can sort of destroy those
clothes, and that creates an opportunity for
some kind of clear visual way to create this
kind of rebirthing.”

Hoffman’s directing credits include
RESTORAT1QN, which had lush visuals,
hut this is a very different kind of film in
that regard: “This movie is very beautiful,
but the focus is more strongly on character,
which I think is probably a good thing. Be¬
cause you’re in a forest at night for more
than half the movie, as opposed to moving
from palace to palace, it doesn't create quite
the opportunity that a movie like ELIZA¬
BETH or RESTORATION docs for sump¬
tuousness. We built the entire forest on
Fellini's old stage, and it was a huge set, al¬
though it doesn’t feel huge. When you’re
shooting in real exteriors, you don’t even
think about the amount of space that you
use. So even though we were on the biggest
stage in Europe, it felt relatively small. But
it created another level of artifice and the¬
atricality. And the fairies are creating a kind
of artifice all the time. They’re the artists in
the natural world, and are constantly form¬
ing and re-forming it. I think without the

20

magic to Shakespeare’s fantasy-comedy.

opportunity to be inside, and control the
lighting and the look of the movie, it would
have been a very hard thing to do.”

The story also takes place in the “real”
world, including a couple of palaces near
Rome. “There are a lot of palaces in Europe
that they wilt continue to furnish and try to
create a sense of what they would have
been, w ith big empty, painted rooms, and
we could go in and actually dress in a rela¬
tively abstract way, which again helped to
take it out of time. And we shot in a village
in the south of Tuscany. The transitions
were very often tough to figure out how to
do, to get across from that real world, to the
forest set, and back out of that set.”

Another kind of transition in the film is
the mix of humans, along with fantasy char¬
acters. “One of my strong feelings" Hoff¬
man said, “and I don't know if this is right
or wrong, is that I wanted there to be magic,
obviously, but I think effects often militate
against magic. Effects arc the equivalent of
if you lived in 1903, and went to the Chica¬
go World’s Fair, whenever it was, and
looked at the wonders of technology. And
that is a long way from magic. It's amazing,
and inspiring and invigorating, but it does¬
n't have anything to do with magic. So we
kept everything mechanical. The only time
I really used effects were in moments when
they’re sort of thrown away. The CGI shots
are not for the big moments. And I think, in
retrospect, that that was a good choice, be¬
cause it kind of takes you by surprise when
there's some kind of effect. And because of
that, I think it maintains a little bit more of
the magic. I think if you'd gone in with a
big effects budget, you actually might have
destroyed the atmosphere of the forest.”

One of the elements of fantasy is a char¬
acter like Puck, and Hoffman noted that ac¬
tor Stanley Tucci is “a very earthy person,
in a way, a very unspritely person. And we
sort of went that way; I mean, I sort of
thought of the fairies as a band of gypsies.
One of the reasons I chose Italy, when I first
started doing the adaptation, was that I
knew it would force me into a different idea
about the forest, and the creatures in the for¬
est, and avoid the kind of pointy-eared little
man sitting under a toadstool.” Consequent¬
ly, Hoffman avoided using extensive spe¬
cial makeup on his cast. He also noted that
Shakespeare makes references to a Greek
play, Ovid's Metamorphosis , which has

fantasy characters like naiads and dryads,
who are “much more what you’d imagine
inhabiting an Italian wood, so it's more
about satyrs and nymphs than about
fairies.”

One of Hoffman's previous films was
ONE FINE DAY, also starring Michelle
Pfeiffer, so it turned out to be fairly easy to
attract her participation. On the other hand.
Kline took a while to come to a decision:
“When we first talked about it, Kevin talked
about playing Oberon, and then I came up
with this idea for Bottom, which made him
more than just this kind of egotistical, com¬
ic blowhard. It took a lot of talking and con¬
vincing to get Kevin to do it, but then he
called and said he had figured a way he
could play Theseus, Oberon, and Bottom.
Well, that’s what Bottom is always doing,
wanting to play everyone else’s role. So I
told him that it sounded like he’d already
committed to playing Bottom, and he
laughed. And then Michelle is a very brave
and adventurous actress, and she always
wants to try things, so I went to her with the
script and she immediately wanted to do it.
Then Calista 1 had known a long time. Most

people think of her as a television actress
doing a sitcom {ALLY MCBEALJ, but
she’s very well-trained, has done a lot of
Shakespeare, and is really fantastic with the
language. And Stanley [Tucci] is a great
classical actor, and Rupert Everett has
played Oberon a couple of times before.”

Hoffman says he’s been having a “great
time” on this production and it “reminds
you when you have material you can trust,
that gives you an amazing amount of free¬
dom and confidence. A lot of people feel a
distance from Shakespeare, and one of the
things I really wanted to have happen, and I
think has happened, is to find the humanity
at the bottom of it. Not that it's so hard to
find, but film allows you to get close to
characters that you’d otherwise see from a
distance. And that had a funny effect on it; I
mean, I don't know if it makes the material
funnier, but it makes it warmer and Tcaler,’
and the comedy then comes more out of the
characters. And I’ve been very heartened
and pleased to hear people coming out of
screenings saying they forget they were lis¬
tening to Shakespeare. That’s great — the
actors really make it their own.”

Universal revives the long-dormant
franchise from its Golden Era of horror.

fey Jot Fordham

For one of the film's RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK action scenes. Stephen
Sommers (left) directs Brendan Fraser (far right) as the Indiana Jones-type hero.

S tephen Sommers knew
that America had been
chuckling at the Mum¬
my for years. The car¬
toons of Gary Larson
arc just one example. Yet the
Universal icon fascinated him
since he first saw the Karloff
original as a boy on late night
TV. “Frankenstein I always felt
sorry for. Dracula was kind of
cool and sexy. But the Mummy
was really creepy. The way they
photographed Boris Karloff,
never actually showing how he
killed people — it really creeped
you out.”

The image intrigued Som¬
mers throughout years of rum¬
blings in Hollywood about the
old Egyptian’s return. “I’d
heard they’d been trying to
make this movie for nine
years,” Sommers recalled.
“Every time I’d check, they had
a new director on it — I knew
George Romero had been in¬
volved at some point and Joe
Dante. Finally it fell apart once
again, so 1 called up my friends
at Universal and asked if I
could pitch them my idea."

Writer-director Sommers re¬
called the strategy behind his
initial pitch, for what has now
become the biggest film of his
career. “They showed me their
previous script, which I had no
interest in doing,” Sommers re¬
called. “They were trying to do
a remake of the original MUM¬
MY. which I loved, but I didn’t
really want to do just a standard
gothic horror movie. There
have been so many of those.

like MARY REILLY or the
Branagh FRANKENSTEIN, al¬
though I liked the Coppola
DRACULA a lot. What I pro¬
posed was, basically, to do THE
MUMMY as the big event
movie. I wanted to do an epic,
romantic adventure — and I also
suggested we had to have In¬
dustrial Light and Magic create
our Mummy. I didn’t want a
guy wrapped in bandages. I
wanted to take a real human be¬
ing and turn him into a corpse,
then turn him from a corpse
back into a human being.”

Sommers’ had a past associ¬
ation with ILM visual effects
supervisor John Burton, who
had provided the digital sea

creatures for the climactic se¬
quences of Sommers’ previous
film. DEEP RISING, and Som¬
mers had been keen to share his
plans for future projects. “One
of them was THE MUMMY,”
said Burton. “I thought it would
be really great to get involved
because of the potential for up¬
dating a classic like that into
something that was reflective of
the technology that we have for
making visual effects now.”

Sommers and Burton were
quick to agree that a truly
frightening modern Mummy
would require a cutting-edge
digital approach, if only to
counteract the obvious baggage
the ancient Egyptian brought

with him. “We wanted to make
sure that our Mummy wasn’t
what everyone expected,” Bur¬
ton continued. “If you tossed
this idea around town you'd
have people saying you could
easily out-run them, or why not
just tear their arms off? That
was always a problem. We real¬
ly wanted to create something
that would be frightening and
dangerous, something that
you’d never seen before. We
wanted to create a photo-realis¬
tic living corpse that was obvi¬
ously not a man in a suit, obvi¬
ously not an animatronic, and
obviously alive.”

“Generally speaking.” Som¬
mers explained, “I’m bored
with straight prosthetics, when
they build a guy's head out and
then they remove part [of ilj;
everybody knows it's fake. I
wanted to do it digitally so that
when the Mummy woke up he
could walk towards you and you
could clearly see it’s not a pup¬
pet. and it’s not a guy in a suit be¬
cause we can see through his ribs
and through holes in his head.”

Having established the tone
and the scope of their story, and
having obtained sufficient inter¬
est in the technical approach to¬
wards their title character, pro¬
ducer Jim Jacks and his co-pro¬
ducer Sean Daniel at Alphaville
Productions began to plot logis¬
tics and assemble key members
of their crew. Other return play¬
ers from earlier Sommers* pro¬
ductions included film editor
Bob Ducsay, who cut Sommers'
directorial debut. C'ATCH ME

Above: High priest Imhotep (Arnold Vosloo) is mummified alive for trying to revive his beloved princess from the dead. Below: Since the old bandage-wrapped Mummy
was deemed insufficient to scare contemporary audiences, the film has the risen Imhotep Inflict Biblical-style plagues (In this case, files), courtesy of ILM's CGI.

ARNOLD VOSLOO

From Darkman to Imhotep, changing
one set of bandages for another.

Arnold Vosloos Imhotep throttles explorer Jonathan Carnahan (John Hannah).

B orn into a theatrical fami¬
ly, Arnold Vosloo took to
the stage as a classically
trained actor in his home-
I land of South Africa. Af¬
ter ten years of taking part
in anti-apartheid theatre. Vosloo
was invited to appear in his first
American theatrical production in
Chicago in the early ’90s. Director
Ridley Scott noted his imposing
stage presence and cast Vosloo in
the better of the two Columbus
epics. 1492 (1992), playing side-
kick to Michael Wincott’s heavy.
As much as he enjoyed the experi¬
ence. Vosloo felt his 18-month
sabbatical in America was over
and headed for New York before
wending his way back to South
Africa.

"I called my folks and said I'm
coming home," he recalled. “Then
Al Pacino’s people called and
asked me to come and read for Sa¬
lome. the Oscar Wilde play. I was
certain they were going to want a
big name actor to take the role op¬
posite Pacino and Sheryl Lee from
TWIN PEAKS, who was great.
Hut I was there in New York, and I
said. *What the heck? I’m flying
out in two days; I’ll go in.' So I
went in. and l was so filled with
fear I gave a good reading and
they hired me!"

The New York theatre crowd
turned out in droves to sec Pacino,
who had not set foot on Broadway
since American Buffalo eight
years earlier. Once again. Vosloo
made a big impression, which re¬
sulted in his second cinematic
role — another bad guy, this time
for acclaimed Hong Kong action
director John Woo, who was mak¬
ing his American theatrical debut
with HARD TARGET—produced
by Jim Jacks at Alphaville Pro¬
ductions, who would later produce
THE MUMMY.

Before teaming up again with
Jacks, Vosloo*s genre connections
began to take root in a more cir¬
cuitous route with John Woo intro¬
ducing Vosloo to film-maker Sam

24

Raimi. Raimi at that time was
searching for a new face to don the
Darkman mask, taking over from
Liam Neeson. “I did DARKMAN
2 and DARKMAN 3 for Sam. so
it’s kind of interesting.” Vosloo
observed. “My wife pointed out to
me the other night — I didn’t really
think about it when I took on THE
MUMMY, hut a lot of genre fans
might know me from these
DARKMAN films. It seems like
it’s gone this way. I just finished
another horror movie before THE
MUMMY with Brian Yusna.
whom I loved. It’s called PROGE¬
NY and will probably go straight-
to-video. Some classic Yusna,
about a doctor and his w ife im¬
pregnated by an alien, or at least
he believes that she is. He sneaks
her into the operating room and
cuts her open. It was pretty creepy.
Now I’m doing all this horror
genre stuff, which is kind of nice."

An admitted horror fan — who
lists PHANTASM as his taste—
Vosloo is aware of the problems
associated with being typecast into
the horror world. Nevertheless, he
has enjoyed the unexpected chal¬
lenge. “Had you asked me how I

thought I might make it in Holly¬
wood. 1 would have thought I’d go
in on the character had guy stuff. I
never would have dreamed (hat it
would have been THE MUMMY.
If this movie works, it’ll change
my life. For better or for worse, I
can’t tell you now. Because I am
the shark in JAWS. I'm the fire in
TOWERING INFERNO. I am the
disaster in the disaster movie.
That really does type you in a
way. Hut I’m really proud of the
film, and I’m proud of what we
achieved.

“The challenge that Universal
is going to have with this film, cer¬
tainly for the MTV crowd, is to
change the whole public percep¬
tion of this character. It’s always
been a guy running around in rags,
stumbling through the streets with
tampons hanging from his head —
it’s completely not that in this
movie. There’s never really been a
movie where the Mummy has had
super powers. There’s never been
a movie where the Mummy has
been really scary. I think Stephen’s
script addressed all that, so I think
it’s going to be pretty wild.”

Joe Ford ham

IF YOU CAN in 19K9; and
British-born production design¬
er Allan Cameron, who de¬
signed Sommers’ take on THE
JUNGLE BOOK for Disney in
1994.

“THE MUMMY was my
19th film as a production de¬
signer," Cameron said. With
HIGHLANDER, WILLOW,
and STARSHIP TROOPERS
behind him, Cameron was no
stranger to working in fantasy,
yet the approach lie adopted for
Sommers' latest project began
with a discovery that would
lend historical detail to the hor¬
ror. “I watched the Karloff
movie, but l really didn't want
to be too influenced by it, so 1
went to the British Museum
and spent hours in their library,
researching Egyptology. I
found this amazing volume that
Napoleon had commissioned
when he invaded Egypt. He had
his artists, etchers and archeol¬
ogists catalogue all the artifacts
and tombs they found in an¬
cient Egypt, it became our art
department bible.”

Sommers’ screenplay dictat¬
ed three major locales. A 12-
minute prologue would estab¬
lish Imhotep’s backstory in An¬
cient Egypt, circa 1000 B.C.;
then the main body of the film
would be set in and around
Cairo, 1925. with two visits to
Humanaptra, a subterranean
City of the Dead, the later for
the final showdown with the
resurrected Mummy. At ter con¬
sidering locations in the Arizona
desert, an area used by Jacks for
TOMBSTONE, costs for the ex¬
tensive studio interiors of Hu¬
manaptra made a Hollywood

Arnold Vosloo appears in his
ceremonial robes, preparing to raise
his beloved princess from the dead.

and while technical blueprint,
but also in the environments we
hoped to place him in, to show
how he would look in cinematic
terms. It was one of these con¬
cept pieces that really got Steve
very excited.”

The process of realizing
Sommers* concept would take
Burton and an eventual team of
close to 100 artists five months
of research and development,
two months of shooting and ten
months of post-production to
complete, but it was at this
stage that Imhotep began to
show promise. Said Burton,
“The organs were exposed,
swinging around, loose. We
built h im up out of computer
graphics geometries, painting
away the pieces that were rotted
and decomposed, and then we

The intrepid trio of explorers enter Humanaptra, the underground city of the dead.

shoot impractical. Instead, the
SI-day production would take
the company across the Atlantic
for six weeks in Marrakesh, Mo¬
rocco, and the outlying deserts
of Erfoud, followed by eight
weeks at Shepperton Studios in
England.

“Once we decided to shoot
in London. Morocco became a
very easy choice,” commented
Jacks. “Also, creatively it was
better. Erfoud had some of the
biggest sand dunes in the world,
so we had these three mile long
dunes in the background of our
shots. It looks like the end of
the world." With cinematogra¬
pher Adrian Biddle rounding
out the mainly British crew,
casting w r as also taking shape in
Los Angeles.

The first player to be secured
w'as Brendan Fraser, whose ap¬
pearances in light-hearted fare
like GEORGE OF THE JUN¬
GLE have alternated with sub¬
tle dramatic roles, most notably
in GODS AND MONSTERS.
The starring role in THE
M U M M Y would I a n d h i m
somewhere in between. “Pretty
early on 1 wrote the lead guy as
a macho action hero because he
was involved w ith a lot of phys¬
ical conflict, and I wanted him
to be able to respond,” stated
Sommers. “The script also had
a lot of humor in it—it was nev¬
er camp, because whenever
we’re with the Mummy I want¬
ed to play it deadly serious. But
1 also wanted the storv to have

an element of humor and be
fun. At six-four and close to
200 pounds, solid rock. Bren¬
dan w as a big strong guy who
could throw a punch and shoot
a gun, but he could also make
you laugh, and laugh at himself.
He has that kind of charm.”

F raser’s involvement ce¬
mented the studio’s inter¬
est, which was grow ing
hotter thanks to develop¬
ments at ILM, “We were
working on the design before
the picture was completely
green-lit,” said Burton. “Of
course, we mostly had to meet
Stephen Sommers’ vision of
what he wanted his Mummy to
be, but on top of that there were
lots of people making decisions
about w hether or not this was
going to be the kind of picture
that they wanted to put their
money into. Our involvement
certainly helped that decision¬
making process by presenting
the studio with a viable, good-
looking design."

Burton turned to creature de¬
partment supervisor Jeff Mann
and art director Alex Laurent to
instigate the process. “We came
up with some designs for the
different stages of the Mummy,
to show how he regenerated
back into a human,” Burton re¬
called. “Once we worked out
how he would transform from
one stage to the other, we did a
hit of conceptual work show ing
the Mummy not only in a black-

used motion capture, plus tradi¬
tional key frame animation and
procedural systems, so that as
he moved, his guts would
swing, his bandages sway, his
skin would stretch, his muscles
would bulge and his brain
would bash around inside his
head. He was one gruesome
guy, and we were really proud
of him.”

Two sets of Imhotep maq-
uettes were rendered in clay,
each approximately 18 inches
tall, full-body and head-and-
shoulder versions, to illustrate
the overall and close-up detail
plan. The sculptures were then
used as the basis for planning
all computer graphics work and
for plotting the interface with
areas to be generated by make¬
up artist Nick Dudman in Lon¬
don, who would join the team
in early 1998.

Himself a veteran of THE
PHANTOM MENACE, and a
long-time associate with ILM.
Dudman recalled entering THE
MUMMY as very much a col¬
laborator in developing the CG
approach. “They were very
clear that there was a very
heavy CG involvement from
ILM." Dudman noted, “but they
were very unclear at that point
where the cross-over was going
to be. There was a big area in
the movie where Imhotep
would be half makeup and half
CG, and it was necessary to cre¬
ate a makeup that the computer
could lock onto in post-produc¬
tion and add CG elements that
couldn't physically be created
without injuring the actor."

Imhotep's regeneration
would tinally break down into a
five-stage progression, the first

Evelyn Carnahan (Rachel Weisz, canter), as the librarian of antiquities,
adopts native garb during her search for the lost city of the dead.

An Invasion of rats inhibit the explorers' progress-^another of the Biblical-style plagues realized via ILM s computer-generated imagery.

w

I*

being ILM s full-body walking
corpse. “My involvement was
really the bits in the middle/*
said Dudman, “w here he went
from half-rotted to sort of quar¬
ter-rotted to, ooh, only a bit rot¬
ted. Then when he was ab¬
solutely gorgeous he was just in
straight makeup, which wasn’t
my involvement." Large chunks
and cavities were to be carved
into the Mummy performer by
mapping the actor with a skill¬
fully designed prosthetic, the
edges of which were marked
with an array of specifically de¬
signed light-emitting diodes
that the computer could track
and lock onto throughout the
scenes. It was a refinement of a
technique employed by Dud-
man and ILM on the STAR
WARS prequel.

"We w'ere doing a head re¬

placement on one of the charac¬
ters in THE PHANTOM MEN¬
ACE, Dudman recalled. “In that
instance, it was something that
was not going to end up in the
final cut of the film: it was
merely a way of giving the
artists rendering the final crea¬
ture a base to work from. On
THE MUMMY, we were creat¬
ing 50 percent of what the final
guy w f as going to look like, so
we took the technology we had
on PHANTOM MENACE and
refined it down into a makeup,
which meant you had to get
LEDs, batteries, sw itches and
things down to about a two mil¬
limeter thickness on the surface
of the actor.”

Clearly, there was still one
crucial element missing from
the production. Before Dudman
could begin, and before ILM

could start modeling their
evolving CG monster, the liv¬
ing, breathing human performer
was still needed to fulfill the in¬
estimable task of stepping into
Karloff’s shoes.

British actress Rachel Weisz
had already been selected to
play Evelyn Carnahan, librarian
at the Cairo Museum of Antiq¬
uities and catalyst to reviving
Imhotep's passions. “I first saw
Rachel in the movie L.AND
GIRLS," Sommers recalled.
“When l met her and she did
some readings, she was really
terrific. As for Imhotep, we
were kind of at our wit’s end.
We auditioned a bunch of peo¬
ple: then suddenly Arnold
Vosloo walked in. It was funny.
At first there was something
kind of intimidating about him.
I can’t explain it. He’s Shake¬

spearean: he’s serious; he’s very
commanding. Within 30 sec¬
onds 1 knew he was going to be
the guy, and I never do that.
Usually, I’m more pensive and
maybe bring people back for a
second time. But he walked in
and it was a done deal. And he
was a blast to work with.”

Vosloo shared the sentiment,
although initially he had not
held much hope of winning the
role so quickly. "At that point 1
figured the studio was looking
for a big name, because DeNiro
had just done ERANKEN-
STEIN. I came in anyway be¬
cause I was such a fan of the
original—it was not even like a
horror movie; it was more like
this romantic fantasy—and I
said, if 1 were hi play Imhotep, I
was not interested in playing
him as the bad guy; I wanted to
play the romance aspect. 1
guess Stephen and I were on the
same level in the terms of w hat
we wanted to do because, four
days later, I got the call and I
absolutely freaked. They told
me I was the Mummy!"

One shaved head later.
Vosloo was subjected to the be-
ginning of his torture at the
hands of the visual effects team.
“When Arnold was cast we
were chomping at the bit be¬
cause we needed his head to
start building our creature.”
Burton recalled. “We run him
through our typical wringer. We
sent our photo team down to
L.A. to shoot him with still

Taking Imhotep's image beyond the old bandage look was a combined effort of ILM and makeup man Nick Dudman.

TOMB RAIDERS

“What I proposed was to do THE MUMMY as a
big event movie,” said Sommers. “I wanted
to do an epic, romantic adventure, and I
didn’t want a guy wrapped in bandages.”

John Hannah, Rachel Wetsz, and Brendan Fraser prepare to confront the
terrors that await them In Imhotep's underground lair, the city of the dead.

cameras against grids and tig*
ure out how big his head was.
We measured every part of him.
photographed him walking to
calculate his gait, and then we
eyberscanned and motion-cap¬
tured him—which was a real in¬
tegral part of what we did."

The cyberscan was a process
w hereby Vosloo sat motionless
before a laser scanner that cap¬
tured a digital contour map of
his body surface, and a head and
shoulders life cast immersion in
a sandwich of hot plaster and
cold porridge courtesy of Dud-
man's prosthetic crew. Next,
Vosloo had to face the reality ot
his first costume fitting in Lon¬
don. “I'm no Mister Fitness, but
I had done some exercise.” slat¬
ed Vosloo. "When 1 finally got
to London, they showed me my
costume, and it was like the size
of a postage stamp." Producer
Jacks, who had worked with
Vosloo on the John Woo action
film HARD TARGET, was
quick to offer advice. “Arnold
was only about ten or fifteen
pounds overweight, but he had
to put on this little skirt and.
boy, did every ounce of it
show!" Jacks laughed. “I told
him he had a month to lose the
weight, and 1 suggested he take
a look at THE TEN COM*
MANDMENTS to see how Yul
Brynncr looked back then."

Jack's suggestion proved
hard to follow, although Hryn-
ner was exactly the look that
Sommers wished to imbue to
the living Imhotep. “Brenner
was just so powerful. How can
you match that, clothed or not
clothed?” commented Vosloo.
“They inflicted a trainer on me.
whom I tried to avoid at all
costs; but, because we were all
in Morocco and it was so hot,
you just don't eat in that kind of
climate. So I said ‘to hell with
all alcohol and sugar.' and that
really did it. You'll be amazed:
stop drinking vour Starbucks
lattes, nix the sugar, and it's two
thousand calorics less than you
normally use. It was pretty easy,
actually, to get in shape."

In addition to looking like
an Egyptian, Vosloo also had to
talk like one. From the outset,
Sommers worked on research.
“Doctor Stuart Smith, of the
Institute of Archeology at
IK’I.A, went over my script to
ensure everything was as au¬
thentic as possible." said Som¬

mers, who recalled some partic¬
ularly illuminating details. “I
never really knew how people
made mummies. They didn't
just wrap you in bandages.
They stuck a sharp poker up
your nose to scramble your
brains. Then they’d rip it out
through vour nose with a tong
and squirt vinegar inside you,
and rattle your skull around.
They ripped out your kidneys,
your liver and intestines, and
threw them into jars. It was re¬
ally a gross, disgusting process.
We're PG-13. so I just had my
characters talk about this. When
it came to ancient Egyptian dia¬
logue. that was also a problem
because no one has heard the
language in over two thousand
years. Doctor Smith really had
it) coach us.”

Vosloo worked with Doctor
Smith hv phone, phonetically
learning lines, sometimes re¬
peated back to him at 3:0(1 a.m..
Morocco time, from L.A., when
shooting demanded a new line.
Vosloo was proud of his inter¬
pretation. “Imhotep's dialogue
was Ancient Egyptian all the
way through, though l also
speak some Hebrew." Vosloo
noted. "I'm sure the studio
would have been happier if wed

just been speaking English, but
vve really fought for it, and I
think it's much more authentic.”

In keeping with that authen¬
ticity, Sommers insisted his
Mummy play it totally straight.
“Absolutely," Vosloo agreed.
“I'd never do any horror acting,
for want of a better word. I
knew that since the ILM effects
were all going to be there. 1 just
had to show 5 up and be absolute¬
ly straight and say, ‘Guvs, I'm
gonna kill you all, but. hey. I
want my girlfriend.‘ That is
what this film was all about,”

British actor John Hannah
(SLIDING DOORS) imparted
necessary exposition as Weisz*
screen brother. Jonathan Carna¬
han. Weisz, Fraser and Hannah
supplied Sommers' requisite
vein of humor. “Imhotep is
Sturm und Drang," Vosloo ob¬
served, "their stuff is far lighter,
throwing in those aspects of
comedy. They were really
great." Vosloo was particularly
complimentary of his co-star
Fraser's performance. "If this
really works, it’ll change the
public's whole perception of
Brendan Fraser. It really puts
him in a whole new kind of
Clark (table-Harrison Ford-ro¬
mantic leading man role."

T he production landed
in Marrakesh two
weeks prior to shoot¬
ing to set up a base of
operations in the an¬
cient market city and finalize
the transformation of the city
into bv-gone Cairo, an opera¬
tion that employed both physi¬
cal art direction and digital en¬
hancement. “The real Cairo to¬
day is a modern city, with huge
hotels and office blocks," ex¬
plained production designer
Cameron. "It was much easier
to shoot in Marrakesh. We
turned the local Town Hall into
the Cairo Museum of Antiqui¬
ties, which was quite an inter¬
esting project. We took over
several streets and squares, took
down telephone lines and elec¬
tricity cables, and dressed it
with period cars, market stalls,
and brought in camels and real¬
ly gave it the atmosphere of
* ¥1
airo.

Visual effects producer Jen¬
nifer Bell was on hand to shep¬
herd the logistical aspects of the
effects. “We shot a lot of plates
for our matte paintings in Mar¬
rakesh, we did a sandstorm se¬
quence there, and we had to en¬
dure some sandstorms our¬
selves.” The sandstorm in the
film was one of a scries of
apocalyptic phenomena con¬
jured by Imhotep in an attempt
to disable mortal intervention in
his plan to revive his ancient
queen. “The sandstorms were
amazing." commented Burton.
" They were kind oLan out¬
growth of existing technology
that had been done on
TWISTER which we adapted to
our own evil purposes. It’s pret¬
ty spectacular."

Numerous other plagues
wrought by ILM included rains
of insects, beetles, locusts and
flies. “We didn’t do frogs,"
Burton apologized. Dudman's
crew were also called upon to
set what he believes may be a
prosthetic record. “Wc had
umpteen crowds running
around covered in boils and
sores, and we had to mass-pro¬
duce prosthetics for all of
them," he stated. “As I recall,
we applied 147 prosthetic
makeups in three hours, just six
of us. They were chucked on.
hut we did it. arid churned out a
crowd of about 4tJU covered in
prosthetic boils." Calculating
the math, each artist handled 24

27

ROMANCING THE BONES

“Since the ILM effects were going to be there,
I just had to show up,” said Vosloo, “and
be absolutely straight and say, ‘Guys, I’m
gonna kill you, but I want my girlfriend.’”

In the prologue, set In ancient Egypt. Imhotep is seized by the temple
guards before he can complete the blasphemous resurrection ceremony.

makeups, at eight an hour, pro¬
duced one make-up every seven
point five minutes.

Fortunately for Dudman,
both the plague of boils and the
first applications of Arnold
Vosloo's partially regenerated
Imhotep prosthetic occurred in
night shoots, sparing Vosloo
and the prosthetic team the
nightmare of trying to make
makeup stick in 130° heal. Ap*
plication limes for Vosloo’s
full-head rotted makeup, a foam
prosthetic with LEDs, averaged
an hour and a half, with the
half-head version taking ap¬
proximately 50 minutes.

Digital crowd replication
and background plates for peri¬
od city-scape matte paintings
completed the Marrakesh ef¬
fects duties for ILM. A remote
desert location at Grfoud, near
the Algerian border, would next
pit cast and crew against the full
force of the Saharan heat. Som¬
mers recalled his first experi¬
ence of the desert landscape, on
a location scout prior to the
shoot. “I now understand when
in LAWRENCE OF ARABIA
they ask Lawrence why he likes
the desert and he says, ‘Because
it's clean.' It really is: and it’s so
quiet. We’ve been talking about
that in editing, how there are no
sound effects out in the desert.
Whenever you cut to night it s a
cliche you hear crickets, but
when you're really out there it's
like being on the surface of the
moon.”

Director of photography
Biddle was equally enamored
by the natural beauty of the
desert, which often necessitated
mobilizing the crew at 2:30
a.m. to capture the first rays of
morning light. “The color
scheme was so romantic," said
Sommers. “The sky was blue
and the desert was gold. We got
really nervous on our first loca¬
tion scout. The desert looked so
beautiful. Then one of our loca¬
tion contacts told us that by the
time we started shooting in
May, it was going to be so hot
that the sky turns white. Adrien
was so depressed, but for some
reason when we arrived it was
really hot, but the sky stayed
blue." Shooting was structured
for the early hours and evenings
to avoid the flat, harsh, feature¬
less lighting cast by the midday
sun. Then, as they arrived at
Humunaplra, the story took on a

darker bearing.

An extinct volcano housing a
disused ancient prison served as
the entrance to the Mummy's
subterranean domain. Cameron‘s
discovery solved a story point
and begun a series of events in
his director’s mind that would set
up a new climax for the film by
multiplying the odds against O’¬
Connell's team.

“We knew we wanted to
build this city in the desert,"
Sommers observed, “but it had
to be hidden because no one’s
seen it in a thousand years. We
didn't want to make it so small
it would be boring, hut if it was
huge somebody would have
spotted it. Allan was driving
around Morocco and he found
this volcano: that gave us the
idea to build everything inside."
As written into the script, the
moment of discovery of the city
in the film was to be an optical
illusion that revealed itsell only
from a certain part of the desert,
at a certain time of day. ILM
provided the visual trick, shoot¬
ing elements in the desert. It
was around this time Dudman

ultimately finalized the look for
the fiercest of Imhotep's min¬
ions buried with him at Hamu¬
li apt ra.

“Stephen re-wrote the script
halfway through our build,
when we were already up and
running,” Dudman recalled.
“He came in and said. ‘Would¬
n't it be great if there were these
things called Soldier Mum¬
mies? I wonder what they 'd
look like?' I sat down with my
lead designer. Gary Pollard, and
we came up with the design lor
the Soldier Mummies and the
Priest Mummies."

Dudman and Pollard con¬
ferred closely with ILM, who
advised on the technical para¬
meters required for rendering
computer-generated versions ol
the new ancillary characters,
Dudman's design process also
crossed over into the realm ol
the costume department. “John
Bloomfield, the costume de¬
signer. was very, very hclplul
and let us have free rein, which
I can tin I y admire him lor.
Dudman remarked. “We ran
everything by him, costume-

wise, but we handled the total
look of the Soldier Mummies.”

Burton explained, “The
Priests arc Imhotep's minions.
When they wake up from their
three-thousand-year sleep,
they're not in particularly good
shape; they're pretty screwed
up. Their limbs aren't exactly
what they used to he, and their
faces definitely have seen better
days. But they're aggressive,
and they’re nasty, and they
won't stop until somebody
chops them into enough tiny
pieces to prevent them from be¬
ing useful. That doesn t mean
they stop moving, but they're
not that big of a threat anymore.
These are all bundaged-up
guys; they’re a lot creepier and
more corpse-like than the tradi¬
tional Hammer and the original
Universal Mummy. The Priests
are more or less sort of hand-to-
hand fighters. They’re guys
whose business is raising the
dead, not fighting, but they're
very creepy and clawy, and
thev're hanging all over every¬
body and they're very danger¬
ous and nasty.

“Just about the time those
guys get dispatched, the Soldier
Mummies show up," Burton
continued, “These guys, al¬
though they’re mummies, and
brought back from the dead, are
well armed. They’re extremely
strong, move incredibly quick.
They can leap through the air,
and they are very aggressive.
They were born a little out ot
some of the really great Hong
Kong period warrior pictures.
They’re not drawn too strongly
from that, because we didn't
want to cross the genre, but
they are certainly very, very
good fighters. They carry battle-
axes, swords, spears; they move
in groups, and they attack in a
verv sophisticated style. They
wear armored skirts and ar¬
mored breastplates, and usually
have more than one weapon."

A s he did with the earli¬
er ILM conceptual art,
Sommers homed onto
one key image that
crystallized the Soldier
Mummy concept and the feel
for the climax of the film.
“Nick Dudman did the drawing
that really turned everybody
on,” noted Burton. “This guy
who's leaping through the air

iimtinunl on pnut 46

28

DEVELOPMENT HELL

Universal Pictures took over a decade, with a half
dozen writers and directors, to unwrap Imhotep.

first time it rains. Our hero has to figure out
how to kill the Mummy, and in the mean¬
time everybody's thinking he's a mass
murderer because everywhere he goes
there are all these horrible dead bodies.
From what 1 understand that is not really
at all what any of the subsequent ver¬
sions are about."

Bernstein said Romero's involve¬
ment at this point was confined to
phone conversations from his pro¬
duction base in Pittsburgh, but after
approximately a year on the project
he chose to leave. Said Bernstein,
“I think the agenda of the film
changed totally. While there was a
smidgen of romance between the
lab tech and the female acquisition
person in the museum, my draft
was totally constructed as a foot¬
race. In fact, I was told to slow it
down. In my first draft, the Mummy
started ripping people apart on page
four. It was very violent and very fast
and the Mummy was not remotely ro¬
mantic. He had no more social interac¬
tion than the T-Rex did in JURASSIC
PARK. He basically just wanted his ball
back so he could get on with destroying
the world."

With Romero's departure, Alphaville
producers Jim Jacks and Sean Daniel redi¬
rected their sights to another team. Per the
Writers Guild's next listing, the next two
MUMMY players were logged in by a 1990
treatment by Clive Barker, followed by a
1991 screenplay by Mick Garris.

“Clive and I had met and talked about
doing things together before,” Garris ex¬
plained. “Originally, Universal was very
high on making CUVli BARKER’S THE
MUMMY, so Clive came up with a brief
outline which he was going to direct. I
wrote a very bizarre and twisted script
based on Clive's very bizarre and twisted
treatment; we both were really excited
about it. Most of the story took place in
Beverly Hills, in the land of tummy tucks
and face lifts, but it was set in a museum

By Joe Fordham

THE MUMMY has a great deal riding
on it, after 12 years in development, backed
by the talents of nine writers and five di¬
rectors. It is always difficult to assign au¬
thorship to the development process,
and the 1999 MUMMY is no excep
tion; its genesis has been a complex
and multi-colored story.

According to the records of the
Writers Guild of America, West,
first evidence of the remake was
logged in 1987 with a treatment
from distinguished horror film¬
maker George Romero. Although
Romero proved unavailable for
comment, screenwriter Abbic
Bernstein was able to throw light
on the concepts being entertained
in 1988. “My understanding was
that George Romero had originally
been brought in to write and direct,"
Bernstein recalled. "They still want
ed him to direct, but they wanted
somebody else to write. So 1 was
brought in and they said, ‘What we
want is something like THE TERMINA¬
TOR.' My perception of THE TERMI
NATOR was you have a creature chasing a
person who has something he can't get
rid of. The creature is going to keep
chasing the person as long as he has it,
but if the person stops, not only is he go¬
ing to gel ripped apart, but it's the end of
the world.

“What I came up with,” said Bernstein,
“was an idea that a sacred orb had been
buried with the Mummy. If you got this
thing wet it would completely dissolve any¬
thing organic, so if you got one drop of this
on your body, you would melt like the
Wicked Witch of the West. My story was
set in the present day, where scientists had
designed a machine that could stimulate
nerves on disabled people. They test this on
a mummy that had been recently unearthed,
buried with (his ball, and the machine
works way too well. The Mummy comes to

This design by XFX, Inc., is one of the many versions
of the Mummy that were developed but never filmed.

life, starts ripping everybody to shreds and
goes after its ball. One of the lab techni¬
cians, the hero of the story, grabs the ball
and starts running with it. and as he's going
discovers what it is and what the mummy
wants. The Mummy all this time is getting
stronger by ripping out people's internal or¬
gans and planting them in its own chest,
where they take root. The Mummy wants to
get his hall back, throw it into the ocean
where it will destroy all life on Earth the

29

UN-SCARY MONSTER?

“The Mummy is the least likely character
to scare you,” said Clive Barker. “So our
version only used him as a starting place
for something else, which was very grim.”

George Romero (directing THE DARK HALF) was the first director attached to
THE MUMMY, when Universal first decided to revive the character back in 1987.

with a large Egyptology depart*
ment. They brought an entire
tomb and rebuilt it as if was
originally in Egypt, recreated
entirely within this Beverly
Hills museum. It was almost
like ‘Chariots of the Mum¬
mies;’ in other words, the an¬
cient Egyptians were inspired
by and involved with alien in¬
telligences from thousands of
years before."

Barker concurred with Gar¬
ris as to the studio's conserva¬
tive reaction to their refur¬
bished Mummy tale. “It was a
little too weird for Universal,"

Barker explained. "One of the
problems is that, unlike vam¬
pires or the Frankenstein Mon¬
ster, the Mummy is one of the
least likely characters to scare
you. So our version only used
the Mummy as the starting
place for something else, which
was very grim."

Garris would later find him¬
self further grappling with the
mummy, as would George
Romero, but before their return
Alan Ormsby was brought in to
provide another version in 1W3
that brought the project closer
to its origins. Ormsby, veteran
of Paul Schrader's updated
CAT PEOPLE, recalled a take on THE
MUMMY that was in some ways close to
Bernstein’s, although his pitch was deliv¬
ered cold.

“When I came on board, I didn’t know
any other people had been involved,"
Ormsby said. “What I was told was that
Anne Rice had written a book called The
Mummy, which I also hadn't read, and 1
guess they were a little worried about some
conflict with what we were doing with THE
MUMMY. Basically, I went back to the
original Karloff film and did a modern day
updated version of that story. It had a pro¬
logue in Egypt and then the rest of it took
place in Los Angeles. My pitch to them was
that it should be a "Terminator" Mummy.
They liked that,”—he laughed—"I didn’t
know they'd heard it before!"

Ormsby recalled thatJoc Dante was
linked to the project as director at this
point, which may give some idea to the
tone of the project at the time. It was
grounded in L A.—Dante's idea; makeup
effects man Rick Baker would eventually
become involved; and both writer and di¬
rector brought a new enthusiasm to the
source material. The problem was that costs
had begun to climb.

“The script came in with a fairly size¬
able budget,” staled Ormsby. "I think that
spooked [Universal exec) Sid Sheinberg.
and he kind of dismissed the whole thing
with the idea that it should take place in

Egypt. He wanted the guy with the ban¬
dages stumbling around. I don't know if
he's right or wrong, but that was what he
wanted, and that’s not what we delivered.
We did have a guy in bandages: we had him
come back to life; it had a lot of great stuff
in it, but it wasn't there yet. It never quite
got finished before they pulled the plug."

Ormsby envisioned the ancient prince
Imhotep, like Karloff’s character in the
original, as an intelligent, romantic fig¬
ure—although Ormsby \s would have been
more overtly virile and would ultimately
have suffered a particularly ironic demise.
“Imhotep regenerated himself into a very
attractive young guy,” Ormsby explained.
“The way he learns about the past—what
happened to Egypt—was that he went to a
synagogue. He hears people singing in He¬
brew, goes in and sees the murals on the
wall, and they're the only language he can
understand. The Rabbi talks to him in He¬
brew, tells him about the Red Sea. My end¬
ing took place in an underground pyramid
in Death Valley. I had a twist where
Imhotep discovered his princess really did¬
n’t love him, that the whole three thousand
years he’d spent in this living death was
based on a wrong assumption, at which mo¬
ment he became quite vicious." Ormsby re¬
mained open-minded as to the potential: “1
loved the idea. If I had another shot at it. I
would have said, ‘Let's do this straight;
let’s try to do this really scary.’ I was very

disappointed it didn't pan out."

Dante and his subsequent
1W4 screenwriter. John Sayles.
were unavailable for comment.
1*^4 also saw the return in¬
volvement of George Romero,
followed closely bv Mick Gar-
ris in 1995. “George came in
and did a new couple of drafts,"
Garris recalled. “He was in¬
volved in another project where
the schedules interfered, and it
was pay-or-play, so he had to
leave THE MUMMY to do this
other project, which eventually
fell apart. The poor guy—such
a nice man and a very talented
filmmaker. George's version
was close to going, so Alphav-
ille came to me to do a rewrite
and direct. 1 did two or three
drafts that I was really excited
about, and the studio had virtu¬
ally green-lit. We were into
casting, I was considering Vin¬
cent Perez as Imhotep. We had
Steve Johnson doing designs
for the effects, which were
beautiful; he and his art director
Bill Corso really did some great
stuff."

Garris found himself back in
more familiar territory com¬
pared to his previous mummy
venture with Clive Barker.
"What Clive and I had done was something
entirely out of the imagination. 'This next
version really combined the Karloff and the
Lon Chaney, Jr. movies in that we had both
Imhotep [Karloff’s reincarnated prince | and
Kharis [Chaney’s bandaged zombie), it was
a romance,” Garris continued. “It did have
some elements of DRACULA, that love be¬
yond the ages between Imhotep and his
princess, which was very similar to the pas¬
sionate romance that Coppola used—but
that actually came from the Richard Mathe-
son-scripted television version of DRACU¬
LA. I would love to have made it a period
movie, in that Art Deco explosion of the
’2tls and ’30s w hich was inspired by the
King Tut discoveries in 1922, but the bud¬
get would not allows that. They were very
tight on the budget."

Contemporary settings and Egyptian
prologue were to be shot in British Colum¬
bia; production stall had been secured.
What nobody counted on was the sale of
Universal MCA to Seagrams. It was a frus¬
trating time for Garris. "We were virtually
green lit.” he explained. "Sid Sheinberg
was leaving the company, and he had a deal
w ith Universal. They gave him the option
to choose movies in the pipeline at Univer¬
sal to produce through his independent
company, the Bubble Factory. He decided
he wanted to produce THE MUMMY.

For a second time. Garris saw his version
of the project unravel. "Our budget was be-

30

tween $15- and $ 16-ni i I lion. It was a low
budget, high quality movie. Shcinberg de¬
cided to spend a million dollars on a writer
and, with this name attached, draw a more
stellar cast. This was going to jack up the
budgetary levels, but it was a little bit dis¬
heartening because everyone was so happy
with the script, including myself. No writer
wanted to do it. They all either liked the
script or felt it wasn't something they want¬
ed to do. They then decided to bring in a
high-profile director. They were unable to
do that too. So basically they came in on a
virtually green-lit project and turned it into a
no-go movie."

In 19%, one year after Garris' last draft
of THE MUMMY, the next incarnation was
registered at the Writers Guild. Written by
Kevin Jarre, whose credits include TOMB¬
STONE and GLORY, this would prove to
be the final stepping stone that led to
Stephen Sommers’ ultimate involvement
and the film unspooling on screens this
summer. As producer Jim Jacks explained,
the executives at Universal were still deter¬
mined to resurrect the Mummy. They were
finally convinced the way to do this was to
provide finances for stars, a period setting,
action, and effects.

Jarre's script was dark, romantic and
harder-edged. Stephen Sommers' version
would adopt a radically new tone w hich dif¬
fered from the original Imhotep tale in two
major areas. First, Imhotep must still fulfill
his curse, but his revenge is not initially di¬
rected at the main protagonists of our story.
Secondly, Imhotep still wants to resurrect
his bride, but the reincarnation theme has
been transformed into a rejuvenation. "Basi¬
cally what happens in our story,” Jacks ex¬
plained, "is they awaken the Mummy; they
escape to Cairo; he follows them, but then
once he gets the woman he needs to regen¬
erate his princess, he fulfills the Mummy’s
curse by killing the men that actually awak-

get. “A lot of writers become very protec¬
tive once they get their script on. but
Stephen was very collaborative," Jacks re¬
called. "The interesting thing was, as the
script got better and better, the budget kept
climbing. In fact, when I started off I told
Stephen the studio would never spend more
than $40-million on this movie. Our first
budget came in pretty high, so I thought the
studio would just never agree to it. When
they said, ‘Well, it’s pretty high but who do
you think we can get in it?' 1 had no idea
they'd react like that. I thought they'd say,
‘Well, we're not even going to talk about
this until we cut $15 mil. Anyway, we start¬
ed talking about casting, and they put Bren¬
dan on the list. Now Brendan shares an
agent with Steve, so he was aware of the
project, and he was instantly interested.
They offered him the part; we got the
movie green-lit; the budget still crept up a
little, but I have to say the studio have stuck
with it, and we went off and we made it."

The second half of Sommers* story in¬
volves Fraser and Hannah's attempts to pre¬
vent Imhotep completing the reincarnation
of his bride, with Weisz as sacrificial vic¬
tim. Jacks continued, "Imhotep has to go
back to the tomb, to this City of the Dead,
to revive Anksanamon. Our heroes follow
him and he causes to be reborn all the
priests and soldiers that were buried alive
with him. These are our bandaged mum¬
mies. It’s like an army of the undead.”

Only time will tell if this new Mummy
will rise in triumph or crumble into dust until
the next revival. "You don't want to be over¬
ly optimistic.” said Jim Jacks. "Certainly we
aren't, but the nice thing is we're already fig¬
uring out what we’re going to do with the se¬
quel, how the Mummy comes to London.
We actually changed the fate of one of our
characters—if there’s a sequel we want this
character to be in it. We certainly had fun
making it and we’d like to do it again.”

cncd him—not our heroes, who were actu¬
ally on a different part of the*dig at that
time.”

The heroes in question are Brendan
Fraser as a French Legionnaire, Rachel
Weisz as an American archaeologist, and
John Hannah as a British Egyptologist.
Fraser was secured while Sommers worked
with Jacks and company in developing the
final screenplay, a factor which itself
proved advantageous to the evolving bud¬

XFX’s designs and makeup tests for Mick Garris’
unfllmed MUMMY included a Clive Barker-inspired
S&M element, slightly reminiscent of the Cenobites.

How Universal added a new monster to the

.GEORGE ZUCCO
‘TOM TYLER

OhIAmon-Ra -
Oh! (iod of (iods-
Death is bat the
Doorway to new life.
We live today—we
shall live again.

In mmtj forms shall
we return—

Oh, rikjhhi One!

—from "The Scroll of
Thoth" in Universal's
THE MUMMY (1W).

Universal Studios, Califor¬
nia, fall, 1932. Boris Karloff, a
sensation as Frankenstein's
monster, is now playing the
3700-year-old Im-Ho-Tcp of
THE MUMMY—acting, as the
New York Times would report,
"with the restraint natural to a
man whose face is hidden be¬
hind synthetic wrinkles.”

Karl Freund, 300-pound Bo¬
hemian cinematographer of
such German classics as DER
GOLEM and METROPOLIS,
is making his directorial bow in
the grand Teutonic tradition of
screams and swaggers. The

Universal back lot provides
"Cairo," while a location jaunt
to Red Rock Canyon produces
"Valley of the Kings" under a
California sky. There are two
special animals: "Wolfram" the
German Shepherd, and "Bast"
the fluffy white cat — each find¬
ing a surprise admirer in the
pet-loving Karloff.

David Manners is playing
yet another romantic horror
hero. Edward Van Sloan is
again dripping sagacity as a
venerable professor of the oc¬
cult. And Zita Johann — in a
long black curly wig, an Egypt¬
ian headdress and a filmy cos¬
tume that makes her look as if
she just sashayed off the stage
of Cairo's Pink Pussycat strip
parlor — is soulfully portraying
the reincarnation of the Princess
Anck-es-en-Amon.

Somehow, by the blessing of
Amon-Ra, it all worked.

THE MUMMY is actually a
macabre love story — an Anne
Rice novel decades ahead of its
time. Hollywood's most ardent
lover of 1932 wasn't Clark
Gable in RED DUST. He was a
towering, wrinkle-faced near
skeleton in a fez, with burning
eyes, a scarab ring, and an aura
of Romance as mysterious as
Ancient Egypt itself. "Anck-es-
en-Amon,” woos our Mummy,
"niy love has lasted longer than
the temples of our gods. No
man ever suffered as I did for
you." Over 65 years after its
production, THE MUMMY
defies the ages as a striking
fantasy of reincarnation. And
as the late, great William K.
Everson wrote in his book
Classics of the Horror Film:
"If one accepts BRIDE OF
FRANKENSTEIN for its thc-
alrc and THE BODY
SNATCHER for its literacy,
then one must regard THE
MUMMY as the closest that
Hollywood ever came to cre¬
ating a poem out of horror.”

THE MUMMY'S HAND. Universal's
the character as Kharis; a mute.

Death. ..etern al Punish -
ment...For anyone who
opens this casket...In the
name of Amon-Ra—the King
of the Gods'

—from THE MUMMY.

It was Sunday evening, No¬
vember 26, 1922 that Howard
Carter discovered the burial
chamber of King Tutankhamun.
Soon surpassing interest in the
priceless artifacts exhumed
from the tomb were the terrible
tales of a "curse" that guarded
the grave, hurling down doom
upon the heads of those who de¬
filed it. Although Tut’s tomb
bore nothing even resembling a
curse on its hieroglyphic-paint¬
ed walls, the discovery and ri¬
fling of the burial chamber
spawned a suppressed scandal,
political imbroglios, and omi¬
nous rumors that a curse had
caused over 15 mysterious
deaths and suicides.

Covering the story of King
Tut's tomb for the New York
World was John L. Balderston.
An adventurous, politically-in¬
spired reporter, Balderston had
won fame as the author of
Berkeley Square, a Broadway hit
that became a 1933 film, in
which a 20th century English¬
man travelled back to 18th cen¬
tury London — and fell in love.
Balderston adapted the play
Dracula for Broadway. His
name later appeared on the film
version, and also on FRANKEN¬
STEIN (for adapting Peggy
Webling’s London play to the
screen). In 1995, John L. Balder¬
ston III remembered his father in
a telephone interview:

"He started off as a journalist
and went to Columbia School of
Journalism. Later, he did cover
for the New York World the
opening of King Tut's tomb, and
that is what I think got him inter¬
ested in Egyptology. He did a lot
of reading and studying of it,
was intrigued by the process of

1940 lo I low-up to THE MUMMY, recreated
shuttling, unstoppable walking corpse.

ZITA JOHANN

DAVID MANNERS

EDWARD VAN SLOAN
ARTHUR. BYRON

AAi . „ „

•iWriW ip

IIKA WHOM All Du,
MILHAUD L(NAV| ft

KARL fAIUND

CARI LAfMMLE

horror film pantheon.

mummification; I still have a
couple of real little trinkets he
brought back from Egypt. And
as to his later ‘horror’ films:
when he was living in England,
my father belonged to a society
whose aim it was to debunk the
spiritualist mediums. They
would find a place that was sup¬
posedly haunted, stake it out and
sec if they could catch whatever
it was that was going on.”

In the wake of the box office
triumph of FRANKENSTEIN,
Carl Laemmle, Jr., Universal’s
24-year-old general manager,
sought a dynamic follow-up for
the studio's new star. Balder-
ston inherited CAGLIOSTRO,
an early story treatment by Uni¬
versal scenario editor Richard
Schayer and Nina Wilcox Put¬
nam (an early "feminist" writer
whose agenda flickers here and
there in THE MUMMY). The
original title villain was a magi¬
cian who had lived for over
3000 years, vengefully killing
women who resembled the
lover who had betrayed him.
Cagliostro is amok in modem
day San Francisco, with a death
ray, a giant Nubian and a lust to
destroy the heroine Helen, w'ho
resembles his tormentor of old.

Balderston went to work,
writing at least six drafts in as
many months, the title changing
from CAGLIOSTRO to THE
KING OF THE DEAD to IM-
HO-TEP(the title was changed
to THE MUMMY after shooting
began). As Paul Jensen wrote in
Midnight Marquee's Boris
Karloff Actors Series book,
Balderston simultaneously
worked for Universal on a script
for H. Rider Haggard's She, the
fantasy of an all-powerful fe¬
male kept alive by the Flame of
Eternal Life. (RKO ultimately
produced the film in 1935, with¬
out Balderston's name in the
credits.) Also, as Balderston's
son says: "My father’s interest in
Egyptology had shown up in
Berkeley Square, in which an
Egyptian symbol travels be¬

tween the centuries, to tic the
plot together.”

So She, Berkeley Square and
a considerable dash of Dracula
combined in Balderston’s mor¬
bid love tale: Egyptian high
priest Im-Ho-Tep, buried alive
for trying to raise his lover An-
ck-es-en-Amon from the dead,
resurrects after archaeologists
discover his tomb, then finds
his long-lost love reincarnated
in modern Cairo as Helen
Grosvenor. Baldcrston's final
screenplay of September 12,
1932 came complete with pho¬
tographs of Egyptian ruins,
suggestions that the costumers
consult Vol. II of History of the
Pharaohs by Weigall for de¬
signing the Egyptian jewelry,
and even such factual tidbits as
“mummies burn like dried tin¬
der.” He also had definite
ideas on casting:

HELEN GROSVENOR:
For the heroine a dark girl of
Egyptian appearance is es¬
sential: she should approximate
in type the bust of Nefertiti in
the Berlin Museum. Something
mysterious and deep about her:
an emotional actress of high
caliber is needed to play the
last sequence which calls for
depth and power as well as sub¬
tlety. / suggested Katharine
Hepburn for a test, but I think
she has gone to New York.

The role went to Zita Johann,
a beautiful Hungarian actress
with the look of a wide-eyed an¬
gel who knew a sexy secret. Jo¬
hann had triumphed on Broad¬
way in 1928’s Machinal as a
murderess who goes screaming
to the electric chair, but her film
career (including D.W. Grif¬
fith’s disastrous 1931 THE
STRUGGLE) had been largely
a fiasco. One December night in
1979, Johann sat by the blazing
fireplace of her pre-Revolution¬
ary War house near the Hudson
River and made verv clear to me

her feelings about Golden Age
Hollywood: "I had more respect
for the whores on 42nd Street
and Eighth Avenue than I did for
the stars in Hollywood. The ego
was what the moguls sold...To
me, the theatre was related to
the Spirit. I always demanded
the truth of myself as an ac¬
tress — that was my creed. Be¬
fore every performance I sat
alone in my dressing room, said
my prayers, ‘died unto myself’
and became my character.” (Zita
also claimed that, in the late
1920s, she had discovered in the
mountains that she was mystic
as she began speaking Hindus¬
tani, and levitated. "And coming
down was rotten!” she added.)

The role of Helen was a tour
-de-force; she appeared not on¬
ly in a flashback to ancient
Egypt, but also in her other
reincarnated lives: a Christian
martyr, a lady of the Crusades, a

By Gregory William dar\k

For THE MUMMY (1932), Universal
created a titular monster named Im-
Ho-Tep, who was more like an evil
sorcerer than a walking corpse.

Saxon princess, a French lady
of nobility. However, she did
THE MUMMY only because
she’d signed with Universal to
star in the Indian love story
LAUGHING BOY, which the
studio cancelled (and MGM lat¬
er produced). She owed Univer¬
sal a movie and claimed she
worked in Hollywood only to
support hcr-then husband John
Houseman, his mother and (as
she later realized). Houseman's
male lover. She recalled, “Uni¬
versal's lawyer looked at the
script and said to me, ‘Miss Jo¬
hann, you're not really going to
make this picture, are you? It’s
a horror picture!’"

Making his debut as director
was legendary cinematographer
Karl Freund. A genius camera¬
man, Freund was known inter¬
nationally for his pioneering

33

Karloff 's Mummy goes "for a little
walk." much to the dismay of
Bramwell Fletcher s archeologist.

photography, such as strapping
his camera to a trapeze in Ger¬
many’s VARIETY (1^25). Fre¬
und had endeared himself to
Universal by shooting (and, he
claimed, conceiving) the finale
to ALL QUIET ON THE
WESTERN FRONT (on which
Arthur Edeson had been princi¬
pal cameraman): Lew Ayres
shot by a sniper as he reaches to
touch a butterfly. It was the
best-remembered scene of the
Academy Award-winning Best
Picture of 1930. and Freund had
joined Universal, serving as
cameraman on such films as
DRACULA and MURDERS
IN THE RUE MORGUE. Fre¬
und’s nickname was “Papa”—
an odd soubriquet for a man re¬
membered by many as a tyrant.
Universal completed the cast¬
ing, engaging two alumni of
DRACULA: David Manners as
hero Frank Whemple, Helen’s
lover in modern Cairo; and Ed¬
ward Van Sloan as all-wise Pro¬
fessor Muller (“Van Sloan is the
ideal man for the part.” noted
Balderston, who of course re¬
membered the actor as Profes¬
sor Van Helsing in the stage and
screen DRACULA). Veteran
stage star Arthur Byron por¬
trayed Sir Joseph Whemple,

who discovers The Mummy
(and later dies under his spell).
Bramwell Fletcher, who had
plaved Little Billee to John Bar¬
rymore’s SVENGALI (1931),
acted young Norton, the fool¬
hardy archaeologist who reads
the “Scroll of Thoth.” reviving
the Mummy, and explodes into
maniacal laughter at the sight:
“He went for a little walk!” he
laughs, madly and unforget¬
tably, after Im-Ho-Tep’s depar¬
ture (shown only as the Mum¬
my's bandages trailing across
the floor). “You should have
seen his face!”

Noble Johnson, who had
played “Janos, the Black One”
in MURDERS IN THE RUE
MORGUE and would play the
Native Chief in KING KONG,
signed to play the Nubian, who
becomes Im-Ho-Tep's ominous
henchman. The studio dis¬
patched a cameraman from its
Berlin office to Egypt to photo¬
graph backgrounds which, pro¬
jected on a large screen on a
Hollywood sound stage, would
give the actors striking back-
drops. And international de¬
signer Willy Pogany created
beautiful sets, full of the mysti¬
cism of old Egypt. Shooting be¬
gan in mid-September, 1932.

A lion's share of publicity
celebrated Universal makeup
wizard Jack P. Pierce’s transfor¬

mation of Karloff into the
crumbling, tattered Mummy of
the opening vignette. Universal
lovingly detailed the eight-hour
makeup job. w hich the horror
star called “...the most trying
ordeal I have ever endured.”

11:00 am: “Dear Boris” re¬
ported to Pierce’s cosmetology
sanctuary, where a photograph
of King Scti II served as a mod¬
el. As Karloff sat stoically in the
makeup chair, Pierce pinned
hack his ears, dampened his
face and covered it (including
eyelids) with thin cotton strips.
Collodion covered the cotton:
spirit gum secured the tatters:
an electric drying machine pre¬
served the desired w rinkles, A
special fascination for Pierce
was some makeup magic he
worked on the tip of Karloff’s
nose to suggest decay. Karloff’s
only pleasures during the proce¬
dure: a cigarette and tea. The
makeup application made
speech impossible, and he had
to pantomime every time he
wanted a fresh smoke.

1:00 pm: Pierce slicked back
Karloff's hair and smeared it
with beauty clay. As the clay
solidified, the makeup artist
carved little cracks in it and
poured fluid in the cracks to
create a serrated effect.

2:00 pm: 22 different colors
of makeup paint began covering

the actor’s face, hands, amis.

5:00 pm: Pierce wrapped
150-yards of acid-rotten linen
(passed through an oven, so it
looked decayed) around
Karloff. The bandages were
taped in the body joints so that
the actor could move. Pierce
added a dusting of Fuller's
earth to his Mummy.

7:00 pm: The transformation
was complete. With Pierce at
his side, Karloff took a little
walk to the sound stage. As
“The Mummy” entered, a gasp
arose from the entire company.
Fortified with a cup of lea from
his visiting wife Dorothy, the
Englishman took his place in
the sarcophagus; the still de¬
partment had a field day: and
Freund shot the resurrection
scene—until 2: 00am. (There
might have been a misadven¬
ture Universal did not report:
according to the unpublished
memoir of Bramwell Fletcher,
Karloff collapsed during the
night shoot as the incredible
makeup cut off his oxygen.)

“Physical exhaustion was
nothing compared to the ner¬
vous exhaustion I suffered,"
said Karloff, who didn't get
home until dawn. “...I am glad
it is over!”

Far less torturous was the
painted-on cotton mask that
created the shrivelled face of
Ardullv Bey, the Mummy's ban¬
dage-less alter ego; it required
only an hour each morning to
apply. Still, the makeup had its
own unpleasant repercus¬
sions—as it had to be melted
off each evening!

So superb was Pierce’s work
that the old Hollywood F Holo¬
graph journal voted him a mag-
nificcnt trophy, presented by
Karloff himself at a black-tie
ceremony. Pierce died in 1968,
and the prize was believed lost.
Years later, a sink was removed
from the old makeup studio at
Universal. There, mysteriously
and unceremoniously wedged
under the sink, was Jack P.
Pierce’s long-forsaken trophy.

"Karl Freund—that pig !"

—Zita Johann

For Zita Johann, the happiest
memory of THE MUMMY was
working with the star. “Boris
Karloff was truly a great gentle¬
man. He minded his own busi¬
ness and was very scclusivc.

34

^Freund was so sure I’d blow
my top,” recalled Johann. “It
was his first picture as director:
he needed a scapegoat, and he
was so sure he had it, in me.”

Johann, as Princess Anck-es-an-Amon. poses on the set of THE MUMMY
with Kari Freund, a noted cinematographer making his directing debut.

verv good, very kind, and very
nice! There was in Karloff a
hidden sorrow that I sensed and
respected—a deep, deep thing.
Still, whatever that may have
been, there was true respect be¬
tween us as actors. He was a
marvelous person."

The two stars battled the )H-
hour days of THE MUMMY,
often working past midnight.
By the lime Boris had melted
off his Mummy face and Zita
had changed from her cos¬
tumes, Universal was dark and
desolate, coyotes howling high
in the mountains as the exhaust¬
ed players walked to their
cars—aware they were expect¬
ed bright and early the next day.

Karl Freund brilliantly creat¬
ed the film’s “look”; working
with cameraman Charles Stu-
mar. he captured an eerie, en¬
chanted vision—as if looking
through the eyes of a King Co¬
bra. Karloff. David Manners
and some of the company went
with Freund for location shoot¬
ing at Red Rock Canyon, where
the director’s day shots (the dis¬
covery of Anck-es-en-Anion's
tomb) and night shooting (the
torch-lit burial procession) are
especially beautiful.

Meanwhile, Zita Johann
faced true horror: “One day,
when I w as walking about on

the Universal lot. I was sudden¬
ly accosted by a huge monster.
And, without a ‘hello’ or a
name—his or mine: ‘In one
scene you haff to hlay it from
the vaist up nood!' It was Karl
Freund, with his heavy accent. 1
swallowed. My Guardian Angel
came to the rescue. I replied to
his order that 1 appear nude
from the waist up: It’s all right
with me—if you can get it past
the censors.’ Freund—so sure
I’d blow my lop. It was his first
picture as a director: he needed
a scapegoat: he was looking for
his ‘out.’ So sure he had it—in
me: ‘Hungarian.* ‘Tempera¬
mental.’ ‘Impossible to handle!'
‘How could I deal with her?’
‘Holds up the crew—the shoot¬
ing! With her temperament!"’

Zita invited Freund and his
w ife to dinner, where Freund
again bailed Zita w ith his desire
to film her naked from the waist
up. Once again she agreed—if
the censors did. too. “So I had
him there!" crowed Zita.

It was only one of the “many
outbursts and tricks to thwart
me” in the repertoire of the 3(H)-
pound director: ‘‘No chair to sit
down between takes. The actors
all had chairs with their names
painted on the back. My chauf¬
feur was outraged—Sasha, a
Russian. ‘Miss Johann. I will

Edward Van Sloan (left) and David Manners (2nd from right) look on as Karloff’s
Im-Ho-Tep (alias Ardath Bey) eyes Zita Johann, the reincarnation of his lost love.

get it for you—-chair, down¬
town. And 1 will paint it—your
name—on back.’ ‘No,’ I
replied. ‘No. Please.’ 1 didn’t
want to be conspicuous, and 1
feared what that might lead to
from the windbag, Freund. Be¬
sides, 1 didn't need the chair. In
one scene 1 was to walk down
the street with a dog. and I was
to wear a dark suit, very tight-
fitting. Do you know that, for
two days, 1 was forced to stand
against a board, so there would¬
n't be a crease in the skirt’’ The
windbag's orders! It took lour
weeks for me to pass out."

Zita meanwhile threw' herself
into the rich role of the torment¬
ed Helen, as well as the drama
and costumes of the reincarna¬
tion scenes: a court lady of ISth
century France (whom Zita de¬
cided must be Madame Du Bar¬
ry). “her w hite-powdered hair
built upon her headdress" (ac¬
cording to the script), standing
bv a fountain of Versailles: a
13th century “Lady of the Cas¬
tle,” in “tall peaked hat and
flowing robes," with a Crusader
kissing her hand: an Sth-centurv
Saxon Princess, in long blonde
braids, her stockade falling to
the enemy as she took a dagger
and slabbed herself in the
heart—all wonderful make-be¬
lieve, made quite horrible, Zita
recalled, by the screams of a
sadistic director.

Finally, all that was left for
Johann was the scene by the
“Pool of Life" with Karloff, and
the Christian martyr scene—in
which she was to be eaten alive
by lions. “Late Saturday
night—exhausted— I fainted—
in the middle of a scene with
Boris Karloff. I was out for an

hour-—dead. The crew, general¬
ly friendly and this time again
on my side, gathered beside me.
What that son-of-a-bitch has
done to her," I heard. “You
don't know the half of it," my
secretary. Ruby Holloway, an¬
swered. My guardian angel
was very husy."

According to Zita, she had
almost fallen into the “Pool of
Life” when she fainted. Evcr-
mystical, she insisted in all the
14 years 1 knew her that, just as
David Manners called her back
to life in the climax of the film,
so did the film’s crew call her
back from death’s threshold that
night: “They couldn't get a doc¬
tor—it was 11 o’clock at night.
So the crew prayed me back to
consciousness.”

The Christian martyr, fed-to-
the lions scene was set for Mon¬
day. Universal had slyly saved
this for Zita’s last day of shoot¬
ing, so that if any of the lions
“overacted,” the actress’s other
scenes would already be in the
can. It was the grand finale of
Karl Freund's sadism: “I rested
on Sunday. Monday morning, I
was at Universal, on time. And
there were the lions! They had
this great big enormous arena
outside on the back lot, and
everybody was protected. Fre¬
und was in a special cage all his
own (a very large one); the
cameraman was safe; the whole
crew was safe. No cage for me,
I was guided to the huge gate,
leading to three enormous lions.
Ruby at my side. ‘This you
don’t do!” said the shocked,
protective Ruby. I took a deep
breath, praying to the Holy
Spirit, and to my Guardian An¬
gel. w ho were already with me.

35

Mehemet Bey (Turhan Bey) orders Kharis (Lon Chaney Jr) to abduct leading
lady Elyse Knox, whom the Egyptian priest hopes to join in immortal matrimony,

W

FI

r

r K

^ MB

in me, ‘He saved this for the
last day/ I said. "Look, I get
paid. I'm going in, I don't care .
What difference...?” was all 1
could say. The gate was opened.
I went in. That I remember. The
lions were indifferent. My lack
of sex appeal, perhaps. Those
lions saw no fear in me—just
exhausted hones! And they
must have figured, “Who needs
them?”

'He is now officially
“ Karloff . " Gone is the
Boris, to that mysterious
land where first names go,
probably walking happily
hand-in-hand with Greta,
formerly part of Garbo ..."

—from the Los Angeles
Examiner review of
THE MUMMY,
January 21, 1933.

Universal wrapped up THE
MUMMY near Halloween 1932
for a final cost of $196,00(1

(about $100,000 less than the
tab for FRANKENSTEIN).
James Dietrich composed a
beautiful musical score, and on
November 29, 1932, Universal
previewed THE MUMMY. Va¬
riety praised the film as “a Hock
of goose-pimple action" and
clocked it at 7S minutes, which
means the reincarnation vi¬
gnettes were probably still in
the movie. When Universal of¬
ficially released THE MUM¬
MY on December 22, 1932.
with the star billed on posters as
“Karloff the Uncanny" and a
running time of 72 minutes, the
vignettes were gone.

What happened?

Johann claimed that Carl
Laemmle Jr. spitefully cut them
after she told him, “Do me a fa¬
vor. 1 had a lousy, rotten time at
vour studio. Don't pick up my
option for another picture."
(“They had to protect Karloff."
she added.) Producer Richard
Gordon remembered Karloff
saying that Universal cut the
scene, due to pacing. Clearly the
cuts were made at the 11th hour:
the name of Henry Victor, as
“Saxon Warrior." still appears on
the cast list of the release ver¬
sion. At any rate, only stills sur¬
vive of Zita’s various incarna¬
tions; Universal made a search
for the long-lost scenes in the
late 19K0s and found nothing.
(Also surviving: stills of Zita in
her slip and high heels w hich do
not appear in the release print—
perhaps a compromise w ith Fre¬
und in lieu of appearing “from
the vaist up nood.")

THE! MUMMY opened on
Broadway in the first week of
January, 1933, at the RKO-
Mayfair Theatre. It came com¬

George Zucco, as the evil Andoheb,
stole THE MUMMY'S HAND and
went on to appear in two sequels.

*9 swear by the mighty power
of Amon-Ra, whose anger can
shatter the world, and by the
dread power of Seth, that I will
never betray my trust.”

plete with a giant display loom¬
ing over Times Square, show¬
ing Karloff in his bandaged Im-
Ho-Tcp makeup, eyes flashing,
the gigantic billboard illuminat¬
ed nightly in yellow, green and
purple lights. The New York
Times noted the film’s popular
appeal: “That there is a place
for a national bogey man in the
scheme of things was fulsome-
ly demonstrated yesterday by
the crowds that clicked past the
box office...”

Tw o weeks later THE
MUMMY had its Los Angeles
premiere at the RKO-Hi I (street
Theatre. The Los Angeles Times
gave a review that must have
delighted Universal: “Surely
the mantle of the late Eon
Chaney will eventually fall up¬
on the actor Karloff, whose por¬
trayal of an unholy thing in this
film, aided by magnificent
makeup, establishes him as not
just a good character actor, but
a finished character star."

Karloff went on to glory. No
doubt remembering how he and
Johann suffered on THE MUM¬
MY, he became one of the
founders of the Screen Actors
Guild. THE MUMMY is be¬
lieved by many to be the mas¬
terpiece performance of the leg¬
endary star, w'ho died in 1969.

Zita Johann appeared in only
a handful of films in the early
1930s. She divorced John
Houseman (and two later hus¬
bands), returned to the stage,
and eventually devoted her later
years to helping the handi¬
capped. She remained a devout
believer in reincarnation; in¬
deed. she believed she had died
in her pre-Rcvolutionary war
house in a previous life. Zita Jo¬
hann died (again?) in 1993 at
the age of H9.

Karl Freund directed another
half-dozen films at Universal,
moved to MGM (where he di¬
rected the 1935 horror classic
MAD LOVE), then returned to
cinematography—winning the
Oscar for his work on MG M's

THE GOOD EARTH (1937).
He also was a pioneering TV
cameraman for I LOVE LUCY
and the Desilu shows. “Papa"
died in 1969.

John L. Balderston con¬
tributed to such horror scripts as
MARK OFTHE VAMPIRE,
BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN,
and MAD LOVE. “He liked
working on horror films for a
while,” says John Balderston III
of his father, “but I think he was
very glad to get out of it. He
was a great reader of classic lit¬
erature, and his main interest,
reallv, was doing classic
books—like THE PRISONER
OF ZENDA 11937)." (He also
wrote a few scenes for GONE
WITH THE WIND.)

Not long before his death he
won a law suit against Univer¬
sal. demanding royalties from
the FRANKENSTEIN sequels,
and sharing them with the
nephew of Peggy Webling
(whose play he had adapted for
Universal). Balderston died in
1954 in Beverly Hills and is
buried in the family Quaker
cemetery in Colora, Maryland.

THE MUMMY, starring
Boris Karloff—which you
must rent—is fine because
you see only a single strand

Chaney's Kharis reaches for Ramsay
Ames in THE MUMMY'S GHOST.

36

of his unravelled tomb-
wrapping trailing in the
Just, It is a love story that
will exist long after we have
settled on the moon and
gone to Mars.

—Ray Bradbury,
“The Birth of the Booos,"
TV Guide
(October 23. 1993)

Whv the enduring popularity
of THE MUMMY? Sixty-seven
years later, it remains possibly
t Hollywood's most macabre

love slorv. There’s a lushlv Ro-

# *

mantic aura to the tale of a man
, who suffered through the cen¬

turies, a tortured soul on fire for
the woman he loved (an ele¬
ment later incorporated into
BRAM STOKER’S DRAC’U-
LA). There’s even a touch of
Feminist agenda that gives the
v intage film a modem spice: At
the climax, “the great night of
terror and triumph,” Helen—
dressed up by Ardath Bey in
wig and gown and headdress—
escapes his dagger and throws
herself at a statue of the Egypt¬
ian goddess Isis to pray for her
safety. The statue comes alive.
There’s a blinding flash of
light; Im-Ho-Tep begins to
shrivel and crack; Helen awak¬
ens in the arms of a young
lover. Karl Freund sweeps the
camera to a pile of bones, and
we see the skull of Ardath Bey.
grinning forlornly, almost
masochistically under his fez.
The villain is literally dirt at the
heroine’s feet.

In March of 1997. THE
MUMMY made history as
Sotheby’s auctioned an original
one-sheet for the all-time record

John Carradine. as the most recent
priest of Ananka. looks on.

Tom Tyler's features are clearly visible beneath the Jack Pierce makeup as Kharis claims a victim In THE MUMMY'S HAND,

sunt of $453.000—topping the
$198,000 previously paid for a
FRANKENSTEIN one-sheet.
And on the beautiful one-sheet
of THE MUMMY, of course,
are the screen's most fascinat¬
ing lovers: Im-Ho-Tep and An-
ck-es-en-Anion.

‘7 swear by the mighty pow¬
er of Anum-Ru, whose anger
can shatter the world, and by
the dread power of Seth, that
I will never betray my trust
as a high priest of Karnak!"

—George Zucco as Andoheb
in THE MUMMY'S HAND

(1940)

THE MUMMY is a classic,
a dreamy reincarnation ro¬
mance, one of Hollywood’s
great fantasy films. Comparing
it to Universal’s sequels of the
1940s is like comparing An¬
cient Egypt to Newark. Yet
what horror buff can claim not
to enjoy these crazy, 60-minute
sequels, with their comic book-
style folklore? “Kharis" (no
longer Im-Ho-Tep) was first
played by Tom Tyler in THE!
MUMMY’S HAND (1940); af¬
ter a roasting, he returned as
Eon Chaney Jr. (now with only
one eye to match his one good
arm and one good leg) in THE
MUMMY'S TOMB (1942),
THE MUMMY'S (.HOST
(1944). and THE MUMMY'S
C URSE (1945). There was
something sadly appealing and
wonderfully spooky about

3000-year old Kharis—that
love-lorn ragbag, stalking
across Universal’s back lot un¬
der a full moon, performing his
weird, shuffling, melancholy
dance to the rhapsodic strains of
Hans J. Salter's music.

What was Kharis’ special
charm? Perhaps it was his devo¬
tion. as he sought to fulfill his
destiny for Amon-ra. Maybe it
was his bad luck; he had the
misfortune to be entrusted to a
leering-eyed parade of Egyptian
priests and acolytes, all of
whom betrayed Kharis in hopes
of joys of the flesh. How ever,
for fans of the series, there was
one absolute: Kharis had an in¬
credible fetish for carrying off
heroines in negligees.

First came THE MUMMY'S
HAND, which began shooting
in the late Spring of 1940 on an
$80,000 budget, under the
break-neck pacing of director
Christy Cabannc. Padded w ith
footage from THE MUMMY,
this sequel, scripted by Griffin
Jay and Maxwell Shane, offered
its own legend—crooned by dy¬
ing. ancient high priest Eduardo
C'iannclli as he passed on the
legacy to his successor (George
Zucco): including the tana
leaves that gave the Mummy
life: and this tidbit, that ex¬
plained the mute Kharis: “they
cut out his tongue—so the ears
of the gods would not be as¬
sailed by his unholy curses!"

The title role went to lorn

Tvler, a B-movic cowboy who

*

had turned villain in John
Ford’s 1939 STAGECOACH.
Tyler faced the Jack P. Pierce
Mummy makeup—streamlined
for the 1940s sequels, but still
formidable—for one day of
close-ups, while a mask was
used for long-shots. A nice roto-
scope effect by Jack Fulton
gave Kharis eyes that looked
like glittering black holes. (The
stiffness Tyler played was tragi¬
cally prophetic: he died in 1954
at age 50, following years of
crippling arthritis.)

T his time, the heroine in the
negligee was Peggy Moran.
She told me in 1993: “Because
we did THE MUMMY’S
HAND so fast, and I was
pushed front one picture to the
other so quickly, I never actual-

writer John Balderston, whose
credits include FRANKENSTEIN,
crafted the script for THE MUMMY

37

ly met the actor Toni Tyler
without his makeup on. He had
to come in at four in the morn¬
ing, I think, to the makeup man
to get ‘bound up' and all that.
Uv the time he had all the
makeup on, he couldn't talk....
we sort of nodded to each other.
So I was really kind of afraid of
him, you know? He gave me an
eerie feeling! You’d rehearse
your lines at home, but you
can’t rehearse a scream—the
neighbors would hear you, or
something! So, I remember I
didn't know what I was going
to do about the scream. Well.

we shot the scenes I had to do
with him on the back lot of Uni¬
versal, with caves there, at
night, sometimes at midnight!
And when he picked me up. and
I had to look up at him and
scream. I had no problem—that
I do remember!"

Upstaging the Mummy w as
George Zucco, marvelously sin¬
ister as Andoheb. high priest of
Karnak. He set the standard of
lechery for future Karnak high
priests: leering at Peggy Moran
with his pinball eyes illuminat¬
ed as he offers her (and himself}
eternal life while she lies help¬
less in his temple (a leftover set
from James Whale’s 1940
GREEN HELL). Heroes Dick
Foran and Wallace Ford come
to the rescue: Zucco is shot and
tumbles down the temple steps.
The Mummv burns.

Produced at $84,000 ($4000
over budget!), the film opened
at New York’s Rialto Theatre
September 19, 1940. The New
York Times reported: “It’s the
usual mumbo-jumbo of secret
tombs in crumbling temples and
salacious old high priests...
Once or twice Miss Moran
makes a grimace—as if she had
caught an unpleasant odor—
and screams.... Frightening or
funny, take your choice”

Virginia Christine, looking like a female Mummy, rises from the swamp at the
beginning ot In THE MUMMY'S CUHSE, before becoming a vampy femme fatale.

Still, the film was successful
enough to launch a franchise.

" The bullet fired into me,
only crushed my arm. The
fire that sought to consume
Kharis, only seared and
twisted and maimed! '*

Thus docs George Zucco
rasp in THE MUMMY’S
TOMB (1942). as the aged An¬
doheb, 30 years later, dispatch¬
es young high priest Turhan
Bey to escort the Mummy to
New England for revenge
against the defilers. This lime,
the Mummy took form as Lon
Chaney Jr., Universal’s “Master
character creator," fresh from
starring as THE WOLF MAN
and playing the Monster in
THE GHOST OF FRANKEN¬
STEIN. The body count in¬
cludes THE MUMMY’S
HAND’S Dick Foran and Wal¬
lace Ford, both reprising their
original characters (in 30-years-
later age makeup). Chaney Jr.
made an ominous one-eyed
Kharis, and would headline the
remainder of the series: howev¬
er. he hated the makeup, claim¬
ing the rubber mask gave him
an allergy and no chance to act.
The troubled “Mummy" retali¬
ated with drinking and temper
tantrums that would become the
stuff of Universal legend.

The leading lady-in-the-neg-
Iigee in TOM B w as EI vse
Knox; the director was Harold
Young. The finale found Kharis
roasting in a blazing New Eng¬
land house. TOMB opened Oc¬
tober 24, 1942 at New York’s
Rialto Theatre, and the New

York Times gave a predictably
snide assessment: “{Universalj
has resorted to a hoax w hich we
hereby unmask for the sake of
the unsuspecting public. In
1932. THE MUMMY was de¬
clared to be Boris Karloff: in
1940 and THE MUMMY'S
HAND, it was Tom Tyler. Now
in THE MUMMY'S TOMB at
the Rialto, it is Lon Chaney Jr.
Obviously a couple of these
boys are imposters...THE
MUMMY came to a bad end
before, but somehow survived
in the person of Mr. Chaney.
For all we know, he will bob up
again as Bela Lugosi..."

Nevertheless, the film was
another box office hit, and
come the Summer of 1943,
Chaney's Mummy was amok
once more—this lime in THE
MUMMY'S GHOST (released
in the Summer of 1944). Now
ancient, ever-trembling Zucco
gave his amulet to new Egypt¬
ian high priest John Carradine,
sending him to New England to

rendezvous with Chaney's
Kharis—to find the reincarna¬
tion of the Princess Ananka,
fortuitously reborn as shapely
co-ed Ramsay Ames. Reginald
Le Borg directed nimbly, with
some nice touches: those sexy
white streaks in the brunette
hair of the lush Miss Ames, be¬
coming more white whenever
The Mummy ambled by; the
mining shack high above tres¬
tles where Chaney’s Mummy
and Carradine’s high priest hide
out; and a downbeat finale, with
a torch-bearing posse chasing
pudgy Kharis and his “Ananka"
(night-gowned naturally, and
aging into a crone a la Lost
Horizon ) into the muck of a
swamp—the leading lady per¬
ishing before the eyes of the
leading man (Robert Lowery).

Chaney was trouble on THE
MUMMY’S GHOST. “I itch
and I can’t scratch!" he moaned
to a reporter amidst the back lot
heat of the San Fernando Val¬
ley, claiming that people who
paid to see Mummy movies
were “nuts.” Reginald Le Borg
became all-loo-familiar with
Chaney’s drinking problems (“I
tried to shoot everything with
him in the morning, because I
knew in the afternoon, it would
be tougher"); he also had to
control a Mummy sometimes
carried away by his own mon-
strousness—as when strangling
the old professor, played by
Frank Roicher, Le Borg (who
died in 1989) told me, “You
know the scene: the Mummy
puts his hand on his neck, and
Reicher sinks down. Well, we at
the camera couldn’t see the face
of Reicher, because Chaney
was hunched over him. and he
was very big in his Mummv

In between takes on THE MUMMY'S CURSE (1944). Chaney tries to beat
the heat by lying with his head in the refrigerator of his dressing room.

38

MThe Mummy was to carry me,”
said Christine. “We start, and
he’s weaving side-to-side. They
took Chaney out, put the stunt
man in—and I was relieved!”

outfit. But after I said ‘Cut!’—
Reicher very nearly was uncon¬
scious! He was moaning on the
floor. We rushed to gel Reicher
up, and he said. ‘He nearly
killed me!' Chaney had just be¬
come carried away—he was
putting everything he had into
the monster. Luckily, Reicher
didn't complain. He was an old¬
er man. nice; he knew Chaney
was the star, and he let it go. We
massaged his neck and gave
him some water. But the next
day. when I saw’ him again. I
spied a look at Re idler's neck,
and you could see he had spots
there, from the strangling!”

THE MUMMY’S GHOST
came-a-shuffling into New
York's Rialto Theatre June 30,
1044. The critics were especial¬
ly aghast this time, with the
New York World-Telegram re¬
porting: “The Mummy has al¬
ways been the least impressive
of movie monsters and he is do¬
ing nothing to enhance his repu¬
tation in his latest incarnation....
He is just repulsive without be¬
ing picturesque or even particu¬
larly frightening...Let’s hope
that this time those Egyptians
are satisfied and let their old
mummy stay dead."

The Mummy did rise again,
but GHOST proved the last in
the scries for George Zucco,
w ho died in 1060. Incidentally,
Zucco’s widow, looking for¬
ward to her 00th birthday as of
this writing, is no fan of the se¬
ries. "I haled those Mummy
movies," Stella Zucco told me
in 1008. “They weren’t good
enough for George!"

“Resurrected in Horror!
Rising out of Death! Egypt's
Ancient Lovers... Live Again
in Evil!... to fulfill The Mum¬
my's Curse... ”

—from the preview trailer.

A hand rises out of the mud,
reaching toward the sun. The
quagmire quivers, and there
arises a female mummy, with a

face like the Sphinx, horrifical¬
ly caked with mud, stretching,
jerking and falling as she es¬
capes her boggy grave. Vanity
prevails, and the female mum¬
my makes for a pool to bathe
away her full-length mudpack.
Glamorously, she emerges, in
sexy black wig, clingy w hite
nightgown and 1044 false eye¬
lashes, as the oomphy reincar¬
nation of Princess Ananka.

“I loved mvsclf in that black

•P*

wig." laughed blonde Virginia
Christine, of her Ananka ‘look*.
“I thought 1 was smashing!"

THE MUMMY'S CURSE
began shooting at Universal on
July 26, 1044, on a $123,000
budget and a 12-day schedule.
Chaney was back as Kharis;
Dennis Moore and Kay Harding
were the love interest; Peter
Coe was the high priest, and
Martin Kosleck (“I am but flesh
and blood!") his lustful acolyte.
The truly flashy part this time
was the back-from-the-hog fe¬
male mummy Ananka, requir¬
ing an actress versatile enough
to play a resurrected mummy,
beautiful enough to score as the
“new” Ananka, and trouper
enough to be willing to he
buried in a swamp.

Virginia Christine filled the
bill—at a salary of $25(1 per
week. Miss Christine told me in
1086, “Before I could be
okayed for the part. I had to go
see Jack Pierce, the head of the
makeup department, and he had
to look at the contours of my
face and see if he could make a
mummy out of me. Jack was a
big braggadocio—he did create
ail the Frankensteins, and was a
master of the monster pic¬
tures—and he wanted the news
to go around that he was about
to do something new. So they
saved that rejuvenation shot for
the last day of shooting, so in
case they killed me off, every¬
thing would be in the can! And
Jack kept saving, all through
the picture, ‘Virginia, don’t you
worry about your skin at all in

L

I’m using something differ¬
ent—just don't you worry. ”

It was uncanny how Mum¬
my history was repeating itself
on the Universal lot. On THE
MUMMY, Karl Freund had
waited until Zita Johann's last
day to shoot her scene with the
lions. Twelve years later, the
studio was saving for the last
day Ananka's rising from the
dead—in which Virginia would
have to wear the Jack Pierce
mystery makeup and be buried
alive in a back lot bog. (Inci¬
dentally, while the Mummy and
Ananka had perished in a New
England swamp in GHOST, she
would rise down south, in Ca¬
jun territory, supposedly 25
years later—which means the
film should be set in the 1990s!)

As shooting began under
Leslie Goodwins’ direction.
Virginia Christine had more to
worry about than just mummy
makeup. There were far worse
ways to earn $8000 in 1944
than starring as the Mummy,
yet Lon Chaney was miserable,
retreating to his dressing room
bungalow between scenes to
sprawl on the floor under his
open refrigerator. And he had a
thirst for more than just tana
leaves. There came a shot on
the back lot where Chaney’s
drinking could have caused a
terrible accident, as Virginia
Christine recalled; “Chaney had
asked that they design a strap
that went around his neck and
around her waist to take some
of the weight off his arms. One
day on the back lot. we were
doing this shot in which the
Mummy was to carry me to the
old shrine, up these steep.

Kharis (Chaney) abducts the
reincarnation of Princess Ananka
(Virginia Christine) in Universal’s last
serious Mummy sequel.

crooked, worn steps. They were
hard enough to navigate if you
were sober. And there I was,
with this strap attached to my
waist, around Lon C'haney’s
neck, starting up these steps—
and he is absolutely stoned. I al¬
ways hate, when they’re gone,
to say bad things, but it was an
actual fact: Chancy was pretty
much stoned throughout the
picture! We start up. and he’s
weaving side-to-side on these
uneven steps. Chaney was a big
guy, and if he fell down, with
me attached to him, I hate to
think what would have hap¬
pened! Finally, the director,
Leslie Goodwins, said ‘Cut!’
and they took C’haney out of the
Mummy suit, and put the stand-
in into it. So he carried me up—
and I was enormously re¬
lieved!"

Shooting quicklv on back lot
sites (the GUNG HO! jungle
set. the “Singapore Street," and
Pollard Lake). CURSE unoffi¬
cially wrapped August 10, two
days over schedule and with
one vital scene unshot: Anan¬
ka's rising from the swamp. The
scene was finally shot August
21. 1944, and Virginia remem¬
bered the ominous eve of shoot¬
ing: “Well! By the time we
came to the last day of shoot¬
ing, I was a wreck, and my hus¬
band, Fritz F'eld, called Jack
Pierce at night, at home, and
said, ‘Jack! Please! Tell me
what it is you're going to do to
Virginia tomorrow!'And Jack

t'oitiinurd on paj*€ 61

39

Hammer Films served up blood, curses, and tombs
in their revamped series of ancient Egyptian epics.

t a miner's Mummy films

stretch from the compa-
I nv’s inventive early days

( ( of the 1950s through its
most productive but derivative
heyday, into an era of frantic
competition in a declining mar¬
ket. Three of them are at least
modestly entertaining. The first
is arguably the best mummy
movie that Hammer — or any¬
one else — ever made.

In the wake of their two suc¬
cessful remakes of Gothic clas¬

sics (CURSE OF FRANKEN¬
STEIN and HORROR OF

DRACULA). England's Ham¬
mer Films was in demand by
major distributors. Universal
had a major hit distributing the
later film, and their catalogue
was ripe with potential. THE
WOLF MAN, THE INVISI¬
BLE MAN, and PHANTOM
OF THE OPERA were consid¬
ered too elaborate, but THE
MUMMY was manageable.
The company reunited the
Dracula-Frankenstein team of
actors Peter Cushing and
Christopher Lee, director Ter¬
ence Fisher, and the tight pro¬
duction unit at Bray Studios.

The 36-year-old producer of
CURSE and HORROR, Antho¬
ny Hinds, was less than enthusi¬
astic. He deferred to 31-year-
old Michael Carreras, executive
producer on the previous re¬
makes. “By then, Tony was
rather steeped in the True Goth¬
ics,' and it's true, THE MUM¬
MY is a bit more romantic, a bit
more adventurous, a bit more
colorful,” said Carreras in the
video documentary FLESH &

By Ted Newsom

Christopher Lee as Kharis in the flashback from Hammer's 1959 MUMMY remake.

BLOOD.

Carreras sat through the
original films to create a plot
template. He and screenwriter
Jimmy Sangster synthesized the
ultimate Kharis film, combining
components of the 1932 origi¬
nal and THE MUMMY’S
TOMB with bits from the later
films. Relocation from Egypt
to a less exotic (and less expen¬
sive) locale allowed the compa¬
ny to use the manor house at
Bray and its bucolic environs.

The Karloff film provided a
character name (Joseph
Whemple), a man driven mad
when he revives the long-dead
mummy, and the still-startling
shot of the priest’s wide-eyed
horror as he is buried alive. The
last two Chancy films provided
the image of Kharis rising from

the bog (implied offscreen in
THE MUMMY'S CURSE) and
carrying his beautiful victim in¬
to the swamp in the climax.
Reincarnation, so central to the
Karloff original, is here a case
of mistaken identity. Kharis as¬
sumes that John Banning's wife
Isobcl is Ananka reborn, but the
resemblance is coincidental.
Not only does poor Kharis
linger in living death for 3,0011
years for her sake, he doesn’t
even get the girl in the end. In
tune with their previous re¬
makes, Hammer set the story in
the Victorian era. Costumes and
sets were sumptuous, particu¬
larly in the flashback of ancient
Egypt.

“The real stars of Hammer,”
opined Christopher Lee, “were
people like Bernard Robinson,

the art director. It's a beautiful
film. It looked like a multi-mil-
lion dollar production — which,
I assure you, it was not!”

Cushing came up with a bit
of business inspired by fairness.
“I saw a poster that showed the
mummy walking through the
fog. with a light shining through
a great hole in his body. Quite
striking, although it did look
like he had a car headlamp on or
something. But there was noth¬
ing like that in the script! I had a
word with publicity chaps, who
said. *Oh that's just to grab the
audience, just to fool them.' I
said. 'Christopher Lee and I arc
in it — that’s good enough. We
don't need to fool them. And. as
the poster's out already, we
must do something about it.' In
the script, my character, John
Banning, has this big ding-dong
with Christopher. I said to Terry
Fisher, *He’s an archeologist,
he'd have relics of his expedi¬
tions in the study, so let’s have a
harpoon on the wall — I'll grab
that and thrust it through my
dear old chum.’ At least then we
had some sort of reason for that
light shining through that mum¬
my on the poster.”

As in HOUND OF THE
BASKERVILLES, made four
months previous, a plot device
lays up Cushing's character
with a leg injury. “I don't know
why it's in HOUND. It didn’t
add or take anything away,”
Cushing recalled. “But in THE
MUMMY, if young Banning
had been able to get around in
Egypt, he might’ve been able to
know what was going on in

40

Above: Kharis, now a mummy, mistakes Isobel Banning (Yvonne Ferneaux) for the reincarnation of his lost Princess Ananka, and carries her into the swamp.
Below left: the Mummy awakens in his tomb. Below right: Mohamet Aklr (George Pastell) prepares to send the Mummy out to kill those who defiled his tomb.

Above: Eddie Powell's Mummy attacks Sir Basil Walden (Andre Morel!) in THE MUMMY'S SHROUD (1967). Roy Ashton's
rather unusual makeup tor the character is based on an actual mummy on display in the British Museum (below).

those tombs, so we made the
decision to have young Banning
sort of hors d’combat."

Hammer chairman Janies
Carreras got a negative pick-up
deal of £125,000 (about
$400,U00) from Universal, a
healthy increase from the
£81,000 DRACULAcost a year
before, but Hammer would be
due nothing after this initial
buy-out. Filming lasted for 37
days beginning on February 25,

1959, divided between Bray
and the larger Shepperlon Stu¬
dios. For Hammer's YESTER-
DAY’S ENEMY, Bernard
Robinson had created a
Burmese jungle swamp on
Shepperlon*s Stage Three. Lit
by cameraman Jack Asher with
splashes of red and green, it be¬
came a moody moor, hampered
only by the obvious cyclorama.
The ‘desert’ exteriors were also
shot at Shepperlon, which

added visual breadth but gave
the dialogue the hollow reso¬
nance of a sound stage.

“There was an awfully good
Irish actor in it, Eddie Byrne,
who played the inspector." said
Cushing 30 years later. “1
thought he was so good.
We re both in STAR WARS,
you know, although we had no
scenes together. And the ubiqui¬
tous Michael Ripper! I don't
think I ever did a picture that he

wasn't in!” (The pop-eyed Rip¬
per did a small bit as a menda¬
cious poacher.)

Cushing’s banter with dubi¬
ous Byrne (who later that year
played a similar role in JACK
THE RIPPER, also scripted by
Sangster) and his low-key con¬
frontation with new neighbor
Mehemet Akir (George Pastell)
are masterly. Their cat-and-
mouse verbal duel is layered
with underplayed double-enten¬
dres. many of which were re¬
written by Cushing and Pastell
prior to shooting.

Suggested by Turhan Bey's
role in TOMB. Mehemet be¬
comes far more than a stock vil¬
lain. Greek-born Pastells mel¬
lifluous voice rarely rises above
a calm murmur, yet expresses
sincerity, understated menace,
and sad fatalism when he real¬
izes he may never return home.
Rarely given a role as juicy as
this, Pastell had played the Yul
Brynncr role in the West End
version of The King and t. He
later led the Thuggee cult in
STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY,
appeared as ape fodder in KON-
GA, and even re-voiced Woody
Strode in TAR/AN'S THREE
CHALLENGES.

As he had done with
Frankenstein's creation and
Count IJracula, Lee created an
original, dynamic Kharis. Gone
was the shuffling zombie of
Tyler and Chaney. Lee devel¬
oped an awkward gait for
Kharis' first scenes, as if the
limbs were animated by a power
unfamiliar to them. Later, he
modified this into unstoppable
force, striding through the night,
ripping iron bars and smashing
doors. Never before or since has
Lee's 6’4" height been so em¬
phasized. accented by Asher’s
ingenious camera angles. At
times, the Mummy appears
twice as tall as Pastell. Lee's fre¬
quent stunt double Eddie Powell
did the final shot of the Mummy
sinking into the mire, but other¬
wise all the stunts w-erc per¬
formed by the actor.

“I did things in that film that
Arnold Schwarzeneggar would
refuse to do, and rightly so!” re¬
called Lee. “I crashed through
glass doors—real glass, not
sugar glass from the prop
shop—so I got splinters all over
my body. Squibs from shotgun
blasts left bruises on my chest
for weeks. I pulled every mus-

42

THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY’S TOMB

“I liked it,” said Hammer’s Michael Carreras
of his directing debut. “And actually, the
only Gothics I personally made at Hammer
were the two Mummies, or was it three?”

cle in my back carrying Yvonne
Furneaux, 110 pounds (at least)
of inert femininity, several hun¬
dred yards, absolutely dead
weight, lake after take. When I
was walking through the swamp
set. I would constantly bang my
shin and knee against the pipes
hidden beneath this objection¬
able liquid, and that would
cause a great deal of foul lan¬
guage to issue from beneath my
mask, which caused the crew no
end of amusement. And when I
crashed through a front door. I
dislocated my shoulder. 1 can
see whv the Mummy wasn’t
Lon (’haney. Jr/s favorite role."

Makeup man Kov Ashton
created a one-piece mask that
left only Lee’s eyes mobile. His
expressive mime projected myr¬
iad emotions from a character
heretofore one-dimensional, a
performance buttressed by a re¬
markable number of costume
variations, t he first sight of the
Mummy is the stuff that night¬
mares are made of: a dark form
rising out of a swamp, arms
folded across its chest. In later
scenes, Lee's bandages are
brow lied with crusted swamp
slop. When he is accidentally
brought to life in the tomb, the
one-piece costume is subtly
aged from the ancient Egypt se¬

quence, in which the bandages
sensibly appear fresh.

As the human Kharis. Lee
not only looks regal and re¬
splendent in high priest gear, he
gives the funereal invocations
an air of desperate personal
loss. In the same scene. Anan-
ka's linen-draped handmaidens
were shot topless for the “spicy
Continental version." Fisher al¬
so shot an insert of Kharis'
tongue ripped from his mouth,
hut it was wisely cut. Instead.
Fisher dollies into a two-shot
reaction shot of the Nubian
slaves. Coupled with Lee’s off¬
screen gasp and a sudden drop
out of the music, the imagina¬
tion fills in the blank. (In 1464,
BLOOD FEAST replicated the
scene w ith graphic gore, to less
effect).

Composer Fritz Reizen-
slein's evocative score perfectly
underlines the suspense and
horror as well as the majesty of
Egypt. An ethereal choir com¬
plemented his use of lush, ner¬
vous strings and insistent brass.
(Rcizcnstein would compose a
similar score for CIRCUS OF
HORRORS.)

The patchwork script occa¬
sionally results in an untidy time
flow. The story begins in Egypt
in 1845, dissolves forward three

years to England, goes into an
extended flashback to 3,000
B.C., back to England in 1898,
then tosses in a recap to action
three years before in Egypt, then
back to 1848 again for the de¬
nouement. For some reason,
Sangster dubs the fictitious an¬
cient god “Karnak" (instead of
Universal’s “Arkan”), the name
of a real locale familiar to many
because of English military ac¬
tion there in World War II—and
associated w ith Johnny Carson's
comedy mind-reading act.

A favorable review in Time
prompted ancient Nina Wilcox
Putnam to complain that her
story had been debased from its
original form. Nothing ever
came of her threatened legal ac¬
tion. In any case, her yarn of
death rays, master criminal hyp¬
notists and serial reincarnation
had little to do with the Ham¬
mer film. (One wonders where
she had been during the Chaney
dynasty.)

^ he picture w as success-

I ful world-wide, getting

I theatrical play dates for

l| Universal as late as

1464. However, Hammer was

unhappy w ith the buyout (other
studios offered co-ownership),
and the distributor eventually
became dissatisfied with the
grosses of films like PHAN¬
TOM OF THE OPERA and SE¬
CRET OF BLOOD ISLAND.
The two companies parted by
1464.

By then Michael Carreras
had quit the company, never
having seen eye to eye with his

father or the company direction.
Having produced a musical and
a western, neither of which set
the world on fire, Michael
struck a low-paying deal
(£8000) as director and produc¬
er, adapting a story written with
Universal in mind. Since the
project was now destined for
Columbia release, this preclud¬
ed using plot points from the
Universal series—not a prob¬
lem, since Hammer looted the
tomb of Kharis thoroughly in
1454.

Carreras split a minimal
£2,000 rewrite fee with Alvin
Rakoff (later hired bv Hammer
to direct THE ANNIVERSARY,
then fired by irascible Bette
Davis). Credit goes to ‘Henry
Younger.* “That was me,"
chuckled Carreras. “Tony Hinds
was John Elder.' and since I
was younger, I thought I’d
make a very small joke. Tony
wasn't laughing."

Envisioned in James Car¬
reras’ hyperbolic fashion as a
20-foot monster battling planes
and tanks, the Mummy shrank
to normal size in the Carreras-
Rakoff rewrite, and they added
several tw ists. The ostensible
romantic lead turns out to be the
cursed brother of the undead
Mummy, a ‘Flying Dutchman’
wandering throughout eternity.
They reprised the scene in
which the Mummy crashes
through glass doors, but added
grisly original touches like a
loyal Egyptian (George Pastel,
in a tar more modest role) will¬
ingly kowtowing so the Mum¬
my can crush his skull like a

In CURSE, the Mummy (Dickie Owen) is distracted from attacking ingenue
Jeanne Roland by the appearance of his immortal brother (Terence Morgan).

43

MAKING THE MUMMY DANCE

«l crashed through glass, got splinters all
over my body, and squibs left bruises on my
chest,” said Lee. “I can see why the Mummy
wasn’t Lon Chaney Jr.’s favorite role!”

snail shell.

"I liked it," said Carreras, ‘i
don't know anybody who
wouldn’t love directing. And
actually, the only Gothics I per¬
sonally made at Hammer were
the two Mummies—or was it
three?"

Given 24 shooting days (two
weeks less than the first film).
Carreras maximized Bernard
Robinson’s sets with judicious
use of fog and Techniscopc, a
cut-rate widescreen process,
used by cinematographer Otto
Heller. (Hammer had ceased us¬
ing Jack Asher; they fell his ex¬
quisite photography took too
long.)

Musical director Philip
Martel I cut costs by tracking in
sections of Reizenstein’s 1959
score, reducing the quantity of
new music needed from Carlo
Martelli.

Gone was Lee's fast-moving
demon. Stunt man Dickie Owen
had height and bulk, but was no
actor. Even if he had been, Roy
Ashton’s dreary mask allowed
for no expression. This ban¬
daged avenger doesn't seem so
much ancient as he does mid¬
dle-aged: slow moving, pot-bel¬
lied. with hands like plaster mil-
tens and an immobile face like
an elongated Pillshurv Dough-
Boy.

44

Terence Morgan played the
enigmatic hero, opposite the
bland but reasonably priced
Ronald Howard. Model Jeanne
Roland does as well as can be
expected as maiden-in-distress.

A turn by American actor Fred
Clark (no relation to CFQ's
publisher!) as the Barnumcsque
showman evoked William Cas¬
tle, who had remade OLD,
DARK HOUSE with Hammer
two years before. Columbia
even tried to emulate Castle’s
gimmicks when they sent the
film out on a double bill with
THE GORGON, promoting the
combo with "black stamps" and
a goofy TV jingle (“The Curse,
the Curse, the Curse of the
Mum-my’s To mb, and t h c
G o r r-go n—Yea h!").

Equally dizzy was the slogan
for Hammer’s third Egyptian
venture: “Beware the beat of the
cloth-wrapped feet!" warned
the 20th Century-Fox ads.
Made in late 1966, THE MUM¬
MY'S SHROUD was designed
to support FRANKENSTEIN
CREATED WOMAN and was f
Hammer’s last production at
Bray before becoming a tenant
at the more impersonal Elstree
Studios. Tony Hinds’ uninspired
story (unrelated to previous
films) was expanded into a
script by director John Gilling

(THE REPTILE and PLAGUE
OF THE ZOMBIES): yet an¬
other expedition uncovers the
withered corpse of a boy
Pharaoh and his titular shroud,
guarded by his ancient slave
Prem, who is inflamed to
vengeance by a snarling Egypt¬
ian and his aged crone of a
mother.

Roy Ashton's relatively in¬
ventive design for this walking
corpse was patterned on a relic
still displayed in the British
Museum, with triangular patch¬
es on the face and braided arm
patterns. But like Ashton's pre¬
vious Mummy, the character is
nearly expressionless since the
eyes are not visible—except in
the rare close-ups, which too
clearly reveals the edges of the
latex mask. It didn’t matter.
Like series monsters from
Frankenstein to Freddie, the
Mummy had ceased to he a
character and had instead he-
come a murder machine.

Alumni from the previous
movies dotted the production
landscape. Uncredited, Peter
Cushing narrated the extended
prologue, in which Dickie
Owen played Prem: stunt man
Eddie Powell played Prem un¬
der wraps. Michael Ripper had
a substantial role as the myopic

secretary to the pompous nabob
played broadly bv John Phillips.
Phillips was the epitome of sub¬
tlety compared to Roger Delga¬
do as the sneering high priest,
and even he is topped by elderly
Catherine Uieev (Karloff’s wife
in THE SORCERORS). As a
seedy seeress incongruously
named ‘Haiti,’ she literally
drools and cackles her way
through the film. The leads
were serviceable and a bit sub¬
tler. At the last minute, David
Buck replaced John Richardson
(SHE and ONE MILLION
YEARS B.C.); blonde Maggie
Kimberly acquitted herself
well, despite the indignity of
publicity stills showing her per¬
colating out of a filmy night¬
gown which she doesn't wear in
the film.

Gilling's visual elan and a
musical score from Don Banks
(EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN)
makes THE MUMMY'S
SHROUD a better genre film
than its 1967 competition, but
offered few surprises. Not
long afterward, Tony Hinds
sold his share of Hammer to
James Carreras and left film-
making, writing occasional
scripts. Carreras requested an¬
other Mummy yarn in 1970,
but Hinds demurred.

There was no mummy in BLOOD FROM THE MUMMY’S TOMB, but Valerie Leon,
as the reincarnation of an evil Egyptian goddess, was ample compensation.

<v

t

An unusual scene from THE CURSE OF THE MUMMY'S TOMB: the police attempt to capture the Mummy in a net.

B y the early 1970s, with¬
out Michael Carreras or
Tony Hinds to generate
in-house projects, James
Carreras (now- Sir Janies) ac¬
cepted proposals by outsiders
like Wilbur Stark (VAMPIRE
CIRCUS), Harry Fine &
Michael Style (the Karnstein
trilogy) and Brian Clemens &
Albert Fennell (CAPTAIN
KRONOS). American publicist
Howard Brandy offered a treat¬
ment he had created with
Christopher Wicking, based on
Bram Stoker's Jewel of the Sev¬
en Slurs , reprising theological
conflicts such as Wicking had
infused into his rewrite of C’RY
OF THE BANSHEE, plus a
heavy dollop of sex and gore.

Sir James thought the story
marketable, if it had a ‘proper’
title. From a list of interchange¬
able buzzwords like Curse,
Horror. Ghost, and Evil , the
project came to be called
BLOOD FROM THE MUM¬
MY'S TOMB. There was a
tomb; there was a little blood.

But: “It was a Mummy movie

*

without a Mummy," laughed
Brandy years later. “I thought
that was the greatest gimmick in
the world! Actually, there is a
Mummy, when the girl’s been
hurt and vou don't know
whether she’s herself or Queen
Tara. The last shot, with her
wrapped in bandages in the hos¬
pital—that’s our only ‘mummy’
shot.”

Sir James assigned his pro¬
duction manager Roy Skeggs to
shepherd the project. “Roy
made that film happen.” said
Brandy. “He kept it all together,
really did all the work. It
wouldn't have happened w ith¬
out him,”

Said Skeggs. now chairman
of Hammer, “I see Howard
every time I'm in Los Angeles,
but I think he'd be the first to
admit he'd never done anything
like this. I didn't make anything
over my usual salary on the
film, and, as it turned out, it just
became a nightmare.”

Wicking (rimmed the reli¬
gious contrasts and the sex and
gore quotient. Peter Cushing
was cast as an archeologist
w hose discovery of a tomb of
an ancient queen coincided with
the death of his wife in child¬
birth. His grown daughter ap¬
pears to be destined to be the
vessel for the reborn Queen

Tara. Buxom, 5' 11” Valerie
Leon played the double role.

After considering directors
Gordon Hessler and Peter Duf¬
fel, Hammer chose 47-year-old
Seth Holt, who had made the
company’s best thriller. TASTE
OF FEAR and wrangled Bette
Davis in THE NANNY. Unfor¬
tunately. Holt's profuse drink¬
ing had begun to hamper his ca¬
reer, his health, and perhaps his
thinking. A week before filming
began. Sir Janies re-hired his
son to supervise production in
general. “I went to dinner with
Seth, and he told me the story of
the film,” said Michael Car¬
reras. “He seemed very keen on
it, and it all sounded fine."

Shooting hegan on January
II, 1971. Late that day, Cushing
did w hat he had never done be¬
fore: he asked to be released
from a picture. His wife Helen
was dying of emphysema. Holt
shot around the character while
Hammer negotiated with An¬
drew Kcir, the Scots actor who
had starred in QUATERMASS
& THE PIT in 19b7. “I think it
had been written with Peter in
mind, but in any case, 1 tried to
play it the way he might've. As
a result, I don't think my perfor¬
mance was good. 1 had no time

to prepare properly," said Kcir,
who started work a week later.

The dilemmas didn’t slop
there. “Valerie Leon took a bad
fall on the set. too,” said
Brandy. “A chair just collapsed
for no apparent reason."

“The director had hiccups
for a week," recalled Leon on a
recent BBC show. “We’d sit in
on rushes, and he’d go ‘Eep!’
We thought it was very funny."

The hiccups were a symptom
of something more serious.
Five weeks into the six-week
schedule. Holt died of a heart
attack. Several crew members
quit out of loyally to Holt.

Carreras again suspended
production. Screening Holt's er¬
ratic footage, Carreras realized
there was something missing.
“Seth's editing plans were all in
his head,” said Carreras, “and
the footage didn't make any
sense. Maybe he wasn't think¬
ing clearly. There were master
shots of a scene, coverage of the
actors within the scene—but no
entrances and exits."

Carreras. Brandy, Skeggs
and new editor Peter Weatherly
cobbled together certain se¬
quences w ith material on hand.
There were no replacements
available at the price Hammer

could afford, so Carreras decid¬
ed to finish the film himself in
what he hoped was Holt's style,
taking no screen credit.

“I thought producing was
supposed to be an easy job." re¬
called Brandy. “This just
dragged on forever, and of
course. I'd made a deal w r ith
Jimmy Carreras for very little
money. I asked for a little more,
since we'd gone longer than
anyone expected. He wasn't
about to part w ith one dime
more."

Released in the U. S. by AIP
and in England hv EMI,
BLOOD FROM THE MUM¬
MY'S TOMB was a Hammer
anomaly—a fantasy set in con¬
temporary times—and covers
different ground than its
three predecessors. More a
mystical thriller than a ban-
dage-and-bone potboiler, it has
surprisingly solid perfor¬
mances, looks great, and has
unsettling feeling to it—par¬
tially. perhaps, because of the
production problems. Under
the circumstances, it's a sur¬
prise that it makes any sense at
all. The story was remade as
THE AWAKENING in 1980,
for far more money but to no
greater effect.

45

FILLING KARLOFF’S BANDAGES

“I hope we can rekindle interest in the old
films,” said Arnold Vosloo. “It would be
really cool if some of the young audience
went out and rented the original.”

The mummification process is performed on the still living Imhotep—as
punishment for his blasphemous attempt to raise the princess from the dead.

continued from page 2K

with two blades raised and this
huge snarl on his face and his
eyes wide open with this hig tall
hat and all this stuff flowing off
him. He jumped right off the
page. Stephen Sommers said.
That's the guy!* and I hung that
picture on my wall here at ILM
to remind me this is what these
guys had to be like. They’re go¬
ing to be really, really scary.
These guys are mean!"

Dudman instructed Pollard
to produce a battery of half¬
scale head and shoulder clay
muquettes depicting the Priest
and Soldier Mummy concepts,
imparting each character w ith a
unique and separate personality.
“We had about 20 Priest and
Soldier Mummies, and they all
had to hold your interest, even
if they might just get one big
quick close-up,” said Dudman.
“I wanted to feel that there was
a history behind each one. Gary
came up with the lot. He did
splendid stuff. He’s a very good
characteri/er.”

Look closely and you might
catch a small homage to the cre¬
ator of the original latex and
bandage Karloff Mummy
amongst the group. “One of our
mummies is very much a Jack
Pierce celebration,” Dudman
pointed out. “We wanted to
make sure we didn’t inadver¬
tently copy what somebody else
had done, which, with that
many previous versions out
there, could easily happen quite
accidentally. We also wanted to
get a flavor of w hat this movie
was about. This was a Universal
Picture, very much in the trend
of the old ’30s movie. We all
grew up on these things and it’s
important to take them serious¬
ly, tt) take w hat you can from
them and pass a little bit on. I'd
like to hope Jack Pierce would
spot a few things in our movie
if he were alive.”

May through August, 1998,
filming of THE MUMMY
filled six sound stages at Shep-
perlon Studios, in the heart of
the English countryside. Shoot¬
ing was laborious, requiring
Vosloo in and out of makeup in
his partially regenerated subter¬
ranean guise. “We had to shoot
a live-action reference plate of
Arnold for every visual effects
shot," stated effects producer
Hell. “Several passes for ILM
and then one to give the editor.

Bob Ducsay. some way to pace
and time the action. This also
gave John Burton's animators a
way to reference the nuances of
the shot, to make sure the CG
character always had the same
mannerisms as Arnold."

Not putting too fine a point
on it. Stephen Sommers de¬
clared, “Shooting special ef¬
fects is a huge pain in the ass!
ILM were fantastic, and my
crew up in San Raphael were
great. I 'd just want to work w ith
them again and again, hut. boy,
it's a big pain in the butt. It's
like making two movies. It
takes twice as much time and
effort as any other movie. My
normal shooting day lasted 14
to I ft hours, but that's just to
make the movie. After that I’d
have to spend at least another
three or four hours every day
dealing with all those practicali¬
ties. And this one was more
complex than DEEP RISING-
more shots, bigger shots. Unbe¬
lievable.”

Although Vosloo found the
process—and his director's
boundless exube rance—ex-
Imusting. the opportunity of
bringing a character to life in
the digital realm was a unique
and rewarding experience. “It

was fantastic. It's you, but it's
not you, but it is you," Vosloo
mused. "It really was a head
game. There came a point
where 1 was there, with all these
little red LEDs stuck all over
me, and I started to think I
might as well not be there; I
was going through the motions.
Then I saw the playback on the
computer monitor, showing
what they’re going to be doing
to me. I freaked out. I realized I
had to go for it with every take
because they were using every¬
thing. I asked them if (hey
wanted me to ham it up and
play it broad. They said no, be
as subtle as you want. It was
amazing. If this works, these
guys will win the Academy
Award.”

Vosloo compared the tech¬
nique to Gary Sinese's scenes in
FORREST GUMP when ILM
removed the actor's legs, "Now
imagine Gary with his stomach
blow n awav and vou can see the

9 9

back of his spine, his heart
throbbing, even completely
through him, and all of that
completely three-dimensional. 1
can see w hy a lot of people
would be turned off bv it. but I
really think it’s the future. It's
totally taking performance to

another level."

In addition to the on-set ef¬
fects. Vosloo also appeared at
Shcppcrton in his original
splendor as High Priest, enrap¬
tured hy his Princess, Anksu-
Namun. “I worked so hard in
making the Mummy human. 1
wanted to make sure it's very
understandable this guy just
loves this woman—when you
see her naked, painted in gold,
you will understand too—but I
didn't even think about this
guy’s special powers, the fact
that he was a holy man. I just
played a guy who was fairly
powerful and had some kind of
voodoo, but he was really a
man in love, who prostrated
himself in front of this woman.
That was all I went for. All the
other stuff will be there, but on
my side of things, that's all I
went for."

One concern for Vosloo,
both as an admirer of the genre
and as a relative newcomer at
the center of a big-time Holly¬
wood blockbuster, was that
comparisons would be made
between his and Karloff's leg¬
endary performance. "Every
day I was thinking, ‘I'm gonna
get crucified. I should never
have done this job,’ Vosloo re¬
flected, “Hopefully the fear fac¬
tor ramped it up a notch. I know
the studio’s going to make sure
it’s not just the genre fans who
will come to see this film, but
the hope is they will accept us
too. As Jim Jacks is fond of say¬
ing— ‘It's not your grandfa¬
ther's Mummy."’

Sommers and Vosloo dis¬
cussed the Karloff influence, to
the extent that Vosloo offered to
duplicate mannerisms and de¬
meanor. "Karloff was so under¬
rated in the first one,” com¬
mented Vosloo, “so still and
quiet; it was very nice." Som¬
mers' response was quick but
reassuring. “Stephen said no.
He told me to make it my own;
he told me that was whv he cast
me, because what l had been
doing was interesting, and it
was right for what we were till¬
ing.” Vosloo revealed their cre¬
ative solution, partly a product
of his research. “The priests in
ancient Egypt were handed
down from father to son, and
from a very young age raised
and taught by their fathers and
the other priests how to behave,
until they finally stepped into

46

c

ihe role or even ascended to
High Priest, which is what
Imhotep was. In the hack of my
head I said to myself. ‘Imagine
(hat Boris was your Dad, that’s
the kind of genes you’re carry¬
ing and that’s the wav vou carry
yourself.’”

As the main unit wrapped up
its work on THE MUMMY, a
final week of shooting followed
that supplied ll.M with a crucial
element to bring to life their vi¬
sual effects. "We spent our last
week in London shooting a mo¬
tion-capture session with
Arnold, duplicating all the shots
that would contain the CG
Imhotep, capturing Arnold's
motion on a green-screen recre¬
ation of the set,” Bell explained.
"All that information for each
of those shots could then he
translated into the computer and
applied to our C'G Imhotep,
so—as Stephen put it—
Arnold's mother would know it
was him.”

F i ive months later, in his
cutting room at Universal
City, Sommers sat down
with his editorial team
and composer Jerry Gold¬
smith for a music spotting ses¬
sion. viewing the latest cut of
the film he had pitched two
years previously. The assembly
was full of title cards represent¬
ing missing visual effects, hut
as the shots were trickling in.
the finished film was beginning
to emerge.

"It’s a really fun movie!"
Sommers exclaimed. "Some¬
times at this point in editing you
get tired of watching and re-
watching your own film, hut
I've not got tired yet because
this movie seems to keep get¬
ting better with all of the ef¬
fects. They’ve blended really
well. I think by now I've
learned to integrate the effects
into a story and its characters so
you’re not just showing the ef¬
fects: something's really hap¬

Industrial Light and Magic's computer-generated imagery helps separate the
new version of THE MUMMY from its predecessors, inflicting a swam of locusts
(above), plague of boils (left) and showing a face dissolving into sand (below).

pening; a character is involved
or growing front it. As a special
effect comes to life, suddenly a
story point becomes clear, or a
character trait pops, suddenly
something that you were hoping
would be funny makes you
laugh, and that’s been really
great.”

ILM supervisor Burton was
equally proud of their achieve¬
ment. "I think we’ve created a
remarkable creature,” he said.
“Our Mummy really looks like
something you’ve never seen
before, moves like something
you’ve never seen before, and
really creates an incredibly
strong screen presence. 1 think
cinema is always at its best
when it can present something
to the audience that they can’t
get anywhere else; and person¬
ally I see that as a Yin/Yang
thing—for every feel-good
movie of the summer, there
should be a hide-under-the-
seats movie of the summer. I

think that’s what we’ve made.”

The final word went to the
Mummy himself, Arnold
Vosloo, whose mellifluous
voice intones the movie’s open¬
ing narration. “I have this pet
theory that the reason we're at¬
tracted to any of these horror
icons—Dracula, Frankenstein,
the Wolfman, the Mummy—is
because ultimately they all beat
death in their own weird way.
They may get killed in (he fi¬
nale, but invariably they rise
again in the sequel and the next
one. They are immortal. 1 think
that’s why we take pleasure in
them. If you asked me w hat I
hope for w ith this movie, I hope
you’ll pay your seven bucks, it
surprises you, and you have
fun. But I hope we can rekindle
interest in the old films. It
would be really cool if some of
the young audience who saw
our film went out and rented the
original. That would really
make me happy.”

47

NBC mini-series rewrites the
the Bible as a big-budget
special effects extravaganza.

“4-See Movie.” as in: SEE,..di-
vine fireballs rain down from
the sky to destroy the evil cities!
SEE...Lot's wife turn into a pil¬
lar of salt as her curiosity gets
the best of her! SEE...God spew
lava from a volcano at Noah to
prove he means business!
SEE...Noah battle pirates and
sea monsters!

Volcano? Wait a minute—is-
n’t that THE TEN COM¬
MANDMENTS? Pirates? Sea
monsters? Huh? So what if it
doesn't happen that way in the
Bible. This is the scripture ac¬
cording to Robert Hulmi Sr.,

Typically, the wickedness that brings down God's wrath takes the form of lascivious sexuality.

By Anthony P.
montesano

The destruction of Sodom
and Gomorrah before the Great
Flood? Lot, nephew of Abra¬
ham, a contemporary of Noah?
Noah meeting God by a raging
volcano? What’s going on?

“God must be wrong,” rea¬
soned Steven Paul (producer of
BABY GENIUSES), president
of Crystal Sky International,
which is contributing effects to
NBC’s four-hour miniserics
NOAH’S ARK. “[Writer) Peter
Barnes has corrected the Bible.”

There are simpler answers
for w hy the miniseries, pro¬
duced to air during the May
sweeps, has rearranged the
events of the Bible. The Noah
legend is a fairly short story in
Genesis w hich has very little
plot development and basically
two set pieces: the arrival of the
animals two-by-two and the on¬
slaught of the flood—certainly
not enough to fill four hours.
Also, adding the stories of
Sodom and Lot provides more
special effect sequences of the
kind that turn the talc into what
old-time publicists would call a

Building the Ark for NBC's mini-series.

whose production company.
Hallmark Entertainment, has
scored a string of mini-series
successes with MERLIN, GUL¬
LIVER'S TRAVELS, THE
ODYSSEY, and most recently
ALICE IN WONDERLAND.

The Noah legend has been
the most enduring and universal
story in the history of mankind:
its iconography is among the
most widely spread today. In
film, the story has been seen in
John Huston’s ambitious 1966
film THE BIBLE: IN THE BE¬
GINNING. in which Huston
himself played Noah and God;
the 1959 Oscar-nominated,
Walt Disney animated short
NOAH'S ARK; and the 1977
documentary IN SEARCH OF
NOAH’S ARK, directed by
James L. Conway, who went on
to direct a number of genre
efforts including THE
BOOGENS (19KI) and a num¬
ber of STAR TREK episodes.

This latest version—which
features over 250 special effect
shots—boasts a trio of Oscar-
winning actors as its leads: Jon
Voighl as Noah, Mary Steenbur-
gen as his wife. Naamah. and F.
Murray Abraham as Lot. Pop¬
ping up in smaller roles are Car¬
ol Kane (TAXI) as Lot’s wife
and Janies Coburn as a philo¬
sophical peddler Noah runs into
from time to time. Taking on di¬
rectorial tasks was John Irvin
(GHOST STORY) working
from a script by Barnes, best

48

“This is TITANIC meets
TWISTER with a bit of AR¬
MAGEDDON thrown in,”
joked special effects producer
Terri Moore.

Given the mix of events that
have been added into this new
version of the story, a host of
special effects approaches need¬
ed to be incorporated, according
to Strowcis. “For example with
regard to the arrival of the ani¬
mals at the Ark, we wanted to
stay as realistic as possible. We
use live animals and incorporate
motion control, split screen and

A lull-scale section was used, abetted with a 1/20 scale miniature.

known for his satirical film
THE RULING CLASS.

The revisionist mini-series
begins with the destruction of
Sodom and Gomorrah, as Lot,
Noah, his wife and sons are
among the few to escape. An
outcast in his new village, Noah
is called by God to a mountain
where the divine spirit reveals
himself through signs and
warns him of the impending
flood, Noah becomes ridiculed
by fellow townspeople as he be¬
gins to build the ark on God’s
command at the height of a long
drought. Soon, animals from
around the world begin to gath¬
er at the ark and play an active
role in protecting the vessel,
which is attacked by villagers
while on dry ground, and by pi¬
rates and monsters at sea.

The special effects team was
supervised by Oscar-nominee
Jacques Stroweis (TRUE
LIES). For Stroweis, the chal¬
lenge was in attempting to
achieve film quality effects on a
TV budget: "We were shooting
for a state-of-the art action
movie feel," said Stroweis.
“When the fireballs rain down
from the sky, they're coming
from God, so we had the free¬
dom to stylize and ‘heighten the
reality' of these effects with
computer graphics in a way that
is different from, say, DANTE'S
PEAK or VOLCANO, in which
the fire had to approximate a
more realistic tone."

green screen techniques to
achieve our desired effect. In
two cases, however, involving a
Dodo bird and a saber-toothed
tiger, we had to rely on CG ef¬
fects. The Dodo bird is full CG.
The tiger is a modified version
of a lion. Close-ups of the lion’s
head were combined with com¬
puter-generated fangs. Many of
these scenes turned out to be ex¬
tremely complex requiring any¬
where from 20 to 40 layers on
compositing in post-production.
Of course a film like BABE had
as many as 130 passes to
achieve the effects of talking
animals. We simply couldn't af¬
ford to do that.”

For a sequence involving a
typhoon and a tidal wave, com¬
puter generated water was em¬
ployed. "Water is probably the
most difficult of the elements to
get right using CG,” admits
Stroweis. “Integrating the
movement of the water with the
boat was extremely difficult."

Noah's meeting with God by
a volcano—a meeting that does
not take place in the Bible—al¬
so presented its share of chal¬

lenges. Due to the limited loca¬
tion shooting dictated by a tight
budget, matte paintings were
used to change the environment
behind the mountain doubling
for the volcano so as not to ap¬
pear the same as another moun¬
tain seen later in the movie.

In the Bible, the size of the
ark is 300 cubits long by 50 cu¬
bits wide and 30 cubits high. A
cubit is roughly 17 to 20 inches;
the Ark, therefore, could have
measured from 437 feet to 512
feet in length. For the mini-se¬
ries, a scaled down I/20th scale
model was built. The bow of the
ship was constructed full scale
in water tank in Melbourne,
Australia, used during Halmi's
production of MOBY DICK. A
number of shots required the
editing of the model, real water,
and CGI. The team agrees that
they were in many cases shoot¬
ing for effects that would ap¬
pear seamless on screen.

“On screen, many of our ef¬
fects should be invisible and
simply enhance the produc¬
tion,” concluded Paul. “They
shouldn't look like effects." □

A crane shot films a repentant crowd who begin to realize Noah was right, as the rain starts to flood down on them.

(iPn 11 *

“God must be wrong,” said
effects supplier Steven Paul of
the restructuring of events by
the screenwriter. “Peter Barnes
has corrected the Bible.”

Unbelievable

a cyberspace movie that’s actually good!

Neo (Keanu Reeves) awakens from the Matrix into a frightening reality: he’s an organic battery used by sentient machines.

THE MATRIX

V%amrr Hmv prctrait, in i*!mk f IiII<>b nilb
Ktiaddiaw Pin urn mil (■ much II Rim Parnrrthip. a
Silver Pit turn PrudurlibD. K v r«*dui:cd hy Juel Sil * rr,
Wfillrn and directed by ihe Hidtamki Hmlhert
t iaemBirpftraphy icolor. bWhciwbi: Hill Pupe. Mu-
ik: iKin Ditii, ^dilii|: /ith Marnbern. Pruduiliuo
dni|n: Oven Pafertoa. Viiuil fi pmduttr, M an hr*
Frm», Bullet-time phutu^npht ht Minn: tiiuil Ft
dim. lor. John (mlumr dntjen: Kam Harrell.

Fight KHirdmalur. Yuen Ping r Ftnutitr pnrtluc-
in; Barrir (Hhursf. Aadrrw Mamo* \>dt Hi-
choeiki, Um HubueiU, Frwm SinIT, anti Bruce
Herman; co-producer, liin I riabiiihi 1 W, IJ5
mins Kalrd R

Nvo_.......................,....„...Kranu Rntn

Morpheus. ..Uurrntr Fhlbarw

Tri»it%. . ..CanleAuf Mm

Agent Smith..„..Hugo t% rating

i Cypher..■■■ P <M * PanlttliaDd

Smack __Belinda Mellon

\ptw. .Julian Arahange

by Steve Biodrowski

Excellence can be easier to ac¬
knowledge than it is to explain,
which is why writing favorable re¬
views can be more difficult than
writing negative ones: a list of
virtues is a harder to identify than
a laundrv list of faults. In the case
of THE MATRIX, the film is
filled with what sounds like a
laundry list of typically brainless
big-budget Hollywood excesses: a
cyberpunk, virtual reality story¬
line; an ear-shattering soundtrack;
numerous fight and chase scenes;
and enough gunfire to turn a build¬
ing into the concrete equivalent of
swiss cheese.

Yet. somehow, these elements
coalesce into a film that is much
more than just another Joe Silver
science-fiction free-for-all (a la
DEMOLITION MAN). The Wa-
chowski Brothers have actually
written and directed a densely
plotted, intriguing laic that reuses
familiar material without ever sur¬
rendering to hackneyed cliches.

In a nutshell. Neo (Reeves) dis¬
covers that his life in 1999 is an il¬
lusion; he's really just an organic
battery supplying energy to a
22nd-century world run by ma¬
chines that keep humanity blissful¬
ly unaware of their true existence
via the Matrix, a cyberspace recre¬
ation of 1999. With the help of
Morpheus (Fishburne), Neo’s
mind escapes from its link-up to
the Matrix, and Neo learns the
mental skills necessary to go back
in and defeat the Agents (artificial
intelligence characters) who patrol
humanity. Also, Neo learns that he
may he "The One." a character
prophesied by an oracle, who will
be able to sec through the illusion
of the Matrix and thus completely
overcome its programming for

physical laws (like gravity) that
actually don’t exist in cyberspace.

There’s a lot of story to tell,
and it is told in a thrilling way. of¬
ten on Ihe run. seldom slowing
down, but never leaving us behind.
The action never distances us from
the characters, never spills over in¬
to sloppy excess. It’s a mark of the
careful construction that, over an
hour into the running time, as Neo
is heading to rescue Morpheus
from the Agents, there is a palpa¬
ble sense of anticipation for the
big shoot out we know is coming.
The reason is obvious: we've seen
lots of martial arts, special effects,
and action by this time, but gunfire
has been kept to a relative mini¬
mum. the Wachowskis having
saved up this big set piece for an
appropriate dramatic moment (this
is the first time that Neo. who has
spent most of the film learning and
being led. must make a decision
and take action without the guid¬
ance of Morpheus).

Technical credits are superb.
Especially exciting is the martial
arts choreography; the over-the-
top action w ill he familiar to fans
of Hong Kong film, but in this
case the unreality is justified, be¬
cause it takes place in an unreal

world. The special effects are also
noteworthy for enhancing the im¬
pact of the action, reminding us of
the cyberspace setting with impos¬
sible 3-D camera moves amidst ul-
tra-slow-motion as characters
seem suspended in mid-air during
flying kung fu leaps. Amazingly,
this approach never succumbs to
the obvious pitfall: the dangers
seems more profound, not less,
even though we know they are not
“real" in the physical sense.

The cast is uniformly excellent.
Reeves erases anv bad memories
of JOHNNY MNEMONIC, even
playing off his Bill-and-Tcd image
to humorous effect. Fishburne is a
model voice of wisdom, and Car¬
rie Anne Moss makes for an excit¬
ing femme fatale. Special kudos
go to Hugo Weaving for somehow
managing to make Agent Smilh
both mechanical and malevolent
(almost as if Jack Webb had been
possessed by the devil).

If there is any failure on the
part of the Wachowskis. it is that
they use the intriguing world
they’ve invented only as a pretext
for plot, without really disturbing
us on the level of ideas (unlike
DARK CITY last year). The film
is filled with concepts that arc

scarcely explored (such as the
homebase of the human resistance
movement, which is mentioned but
not shown). Fortunately, THE
MATRIX does not fall prey to the
standard plot structure of futuristic
freedom fighter movies, wherein
the hero conveniently joins the
rehcls just when the big battle is
about to be fought that will over¬
throw the totalitarian regime and
restore peace to the world Instead,
THE MATRIX builds up to the
point where Neo finally proves
that he is The One, capable of
fighting the Matrix and its agents.
That battle itself will, presumably,
be the subject of future films, in
which the intriguing concepts in¬
troduced here may be more fully
developed. In the meantime, we
have the most exciting, intelligent,
and imaginative genre film so far
this year. Filled with images that
amaze without overwhelming the
story. THE MATRIX tackles the
growing computer/cyhcrspace/VR
sub-genre of films that includes
duds and disappointments like
HACKERS. THE NET. VIRTU¬
OSITY. and WILD PALMS. Just
when you thought you never want¬
ed to see another, along comes one
that’s absolutely astounding.

50

aa^tia'ss©

BORDERLAND THE FACE OF EVIL IN 8MM

By Anthony P. Montesano Walker’s follow Up to SEVEN is just not lip to Snuff.

L to r: private eye Tom Welles (Nicolas Cage) confronts the masked Machine
(Chris Bauer) and snuff filmmaker Dino Velvet (Peter Stormare) in 8MM.

Screenwriter Andrew Kevin
Walker has made a career of
putting a normal face on the
specter of evil. When we see it. we
are supposed to recognize our
neighbors, ourselves, even Norm
from Cheers. Walker docs not sub¬
scribe to the post-Freudian suppo¬
sitions of Alfred Hitchcock's
PSYCHO. Ills “monsters"are not
Norman Bates-type creatures.
They haven’t been beaten as chil¬
dren. They haven’t been raped.
Society has not done them any dis¬
service. They kill and mutilate
simply because they want to.
Walker's oeuvre to date is awash
in this notion. He intends for it the
have the same disorienting shock
as a random drive-by shooting.
No explanations. It just happens.

Even, the Freddie Krueger-like
monster of Edward Furlong's id in
Walker’s first film BRAINSCAN
was originally envisioned in
Walker’s script as a"discm bodied
voice on the phone." So. in effect,
when the character speaks to the
evil, he finds that he’s speaking to
himself. The pronouncement that
evil results independent of soci¬
etal circumstance is a deep-seeded
notion in many cultures and is the
driving theme behind Walker’s
latest effort.the Joel Schumacher-
directed 8MM (Columbia, 2/99,
R. 123 mins).

Here, Walker recreates the
long-standing urban myth of snuff
films (in which people are suppos¬
edly killed on screen) with the ex¬
planation that these films are
what pornographers make (for
enough money) as a side hobby.
But as shocking and outrageous as
8MM attempts to be (there are
large knives, a crucifix and an exe¬
cutioner named Machine who
wears a leather S&M mask), it still
pales in comparison to Walker’s
masterpiece SEVEN, a film that,
while saddled with some of the
same stiff “movie" plot conven¬
tions as KMM. bursts onto the
screen with an adrenaline-induc¬
ing cinematic power that doesn't
ease up long past the last frame.
With such similar material coming
from the same screenwriter. SMM
couldn’t help hut seem derivative
(much like Francis Ford Coppo¬
la’s third go-around at THE GOD¬
FATHER franchise). Walker has
gone to the same well once too of¬
ten. The words and the props are

all there hut their roles seem hag¬
gard. Once we’ve gone into the
dessert with Kevin Spacey. Brad
Pitt and Morgan Freeman, we’ve
“been there and done that."

8MM is not without its power¬
ful moments nor its admirable per¬
formances (most notably Joaquin
Phoenix as Max California, a
street-wise Virgil to Nicholas
Cage's Dante in the pornographic
underworld of Los Angeles and
New York). The real shock of
SMM (and SEVEN for that mat¬
ter) is that both films were em¬
braced by Hollywood and funded
by major studios that were willing
to market them not as FRIDAY
THE 13th exploitation, hut rather
as mainstream thrillers. Neither
film is that. In fact, the filmmakers
here are hoping that the audience
for SMM will gain the same vis¬
ceral thrill from watching a film
about snuff films as the (hypothet¬
ical) people who watch the snuff
films themselves. If that's not ex¬
ploitation, I don’t know what is.

BLAST FROM THE PAST
(New Line Cinema. 2/99, PG-13,
106 mins) recalls the live-action
Disney films of the late 50s and
early 60s in which wacky inven¬
tors involve their family and
friends in a kooky experiment.
Here. Calvin (played by Christo¬
pher Walken, who has mapped out
the last 20 years playing characters
slightly left of center) is the bril¬
liant inventor whit has secretly
constructed an elaborate bomb

shelter to protect his family in the
event that the Cold War heats up.
Sissy Spacek plays Helen, his
Eisenhower-era, pregnant wife
who descends into the shelter with
him when the announcement of
the Cuban Missile Crisis frightens
Calvin into believing that a plane
gone astray above his town is actu¬
ally a Russian bomb. The irony of
course is since this plane eventual¬
ly lands on Calvin’s house, de¬
stroying it. going into the bomb
shelter actually does save his fami¬
ly’s lives. His son Adam is born
into this subterranean prefabricat¬
ed suburb. The 35-vear lock on the
door prevents the family from
leaving until the 1990s. The film
deftly illustrates the changes going
on above ground as the unaffected
"nuclear family" below is frozen
in time, raising its son as if it was
still 1962.

The film is rife with sublime
irony that isn’t lost on its audience.
Brendan Fraser plays the adult
Adam as a child-man (a role he
has perfected here) whose perfect
manners and moral upbringing
makes him at first appear as a
freak when he emerges above
ground. His only source of guid¬
ance for first 35 years of his life
has been his parents and his con¬
stant references to their good ad¬
vice makes those he contacts won¬
der how he could he so well ad¬
justed. Alicia Silverstone plays
Eve, a bitchy product of the disil¬
lusioned 90s who befriends Adam

and reluctantly (and unknowingly)
helps him gather supplies for his
family down below.

The premise holds tremendous
promise, and the film dtres not dis¬
appoint as points are made about
the value of lessons learned from
the past. In fact, everything about
this wonderfully surprising film
works: Hugh Wilson’s restrained
direction never bulldozes the sub¬
text of the film with gratuitous
slapstick and the performances of
Fraser, Silverstone, and Oscar
winners Walken and Spacek arc
all on target.

This film brought to mind an¬
other underrated Borderland ef¬
fort. Joe Dante's Cuban Missile
Crisis opus, MATINEE. Both
films offer a similar ode to the loss
of innocence, to a time before Si¬
mon and Garfunkel sadly asked
"where have you gone Joe DiMag-
gio, a nation turns its lonely eyes
to you.” 1 ’d recommend watching
them back-to-back with your fami¬
ly and a big bag of popcorn.

The pre-release press info for
DEEP END OF THE OCEAN
(Columbia, 3/99, PG-13, 148
mins) teased with hints that the
film’s kidnapping plot hinged on a
“miraculous" event, but that come-
on turned out to he an exaggera¬
tion. as the missing hoy’s return is
merely a wildly improbable coin¬
cidence. The film itself is not had.
but it falls well outside the Border¬
land.

Emerging after 35 years in a fallout
shelter. Adam (Brendan Fraser)
meets Eve (Alicia Silverstone)

In BLAST FROM THE PAST.

51

©awns'®©

LASERBLAST

By Dennis Fischer

STANLEY KUBRICK ON DISC:

Classics from cinema’s greatest science fiction filmmaker.

Stanley Kuhrick was one of the
great directors and certainly the
greatest science fiction director,
with three masterpieces to his
credit. He received the kind of
treatment and contracts most other
directors only dream of (including
control of production, final cut,
and advertising).

Kuhrick was a perfectionist,
and his careful attention to his art
is evident in every frame of his
work. I once talked with actor Joe
Turkel (THE SHINING) about
Kubrick's penchant for numerous
takes. Turkel recalled an actor al¬
most reduced to tears and asking
Kuhrick what he wanted when
asked to do a shot for the fortieth
lime. Kubrick calmly responded.
“I've spent four years of my life
preparing this project. What I want
is 1 want it fucking perfect."

Precise and uncompromising,
possessed of an undeniable talent,
Kubrick's films leave lasting im¬
pressions on all who truly see
them. His early anti-war film
PATHS OF GI.ORY (Criterion)
has received homages from Robert
Zemeckis (“Yellow” from TALES
FROM THE CRYPT) and Terry
Gilliam (WWI scenes in 12 MON¬
KEYS). THE SIMPSONS has bor¬
rowed from Kubrick's oeuvre nu¬
merous times, especially from
2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
Kubrick's work has become a part
of the shared cultural fabric, which
makes it fascinating to note that

DR. STRANGE LOVE, with Peter
Sellers in the title role, has been
issued on laserdisc three times.

Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) interviews for a job in THE SHINING. Stanley
Kubrick's 1980 horror film based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King.

except for DR. STRANGELOVE,
OR HOW 1 LEARNED TO STOP
WORRYING AND LOVE THE
BOMB, all of Kubrick’s subse¬
quent genre work was initially met
with disdain that slowly turned in¬
to acclaim as each work's endur¬
ing qualities became recognized.

‘ DR. STRANGELOVE has
been issued on laserdisc three
limes (RCA/Columbia, Criterion,
Columbia/Tri-Star). The old RCA
pressing suffered from a grainy
image and inferior monaural
sound. Kubrick himself supervised
the sharper Criterion transfer
which alternates the aspect ratio
between 1.33 and 1.66. The Crite¬
rion edition is in CAV and presents
a number of bonuses, including an
early draft of the script (prior to
Terry Southern’s involvement),
which is devoid of the movie’s no¬
table black humor and has a fram¬
ing story about aliens finding a
manuscript on a burned out planet.

Additionally. Criterion has in¬
cluded Civil Defense films and
brochures from the time period, all
of which notably mislead the pub¬
lic, as well as a music video (“My
Teenage Fallout Queen") and a
trailer that presents a few quick,
behind-the-scenes shots of
Kubrick at work. The gatefold
jacket presents an essay detailing
the numerous sexual allusions
scattered throughout the film,
w hich looks at the big bang both in
terms of sex and mass deaths,
neatly juxtaposing the subcon¬

scious’s two biggest drives. The
Columbia/Tri-Star edition of the
film offers a comparable transfer
in CLV without the additional
bonus materials.

Kubrick only made two
widescreen films, SPARTACUS
(MC’A/Universal and Criterion),
which has been restored to include
some of Kubrick’s ground-break¬
ing splatter work (Kuhrick hired,
for example, armless men to wear
prosthetic limbs that would be
hacked off in the battle scenes),
and 2(H) I: A SPACE ODYSSEY.
After noting that films had a
greater longevity on television
(and later video), he abandoned
the format to make all his subse¬
quent films in 1.66. Seeing the
first laser release of 2001, w ith the
film's titles given new, crooked
lettering, it is easy to understand
why Kubrick would be dissatisfied
with the format.

2001 is the most awe-inspiring
science fiction film of all time, and
it deserves to be seen in a theater,
especially given the massive
amount of detail that Kubrick
crammed into his frame. It left
many initial viewers baffled be¬
cause Kubrick chose to tell the sto¬
ry entirely cinematically. with no
overt verbal explanations for what
is transpiring. It also helped to be
familiar w ith the evolutionary con¬
cepts of Olaf Stapledon as well as
co-scripter Arthur C. Clarke’s sto¬
ry “The Sentinel." which served as
an inspiration for the film (about

the unearthing of an alien artifact
on the moon that transmits a signal
when unearthed, revealing that
mankind has its cradle to explore
its satellite).

My favorite video transfer of
the film remains the Criterion,
which was transferred from a
35mm intermediate negative to a
video digital format master tape
under the supervision of Kubrick.
The disc’s letterboxing measures
2.1, and the CAV version contains
excerpts from various publications
detailing the construction and
meaning of the film, various mem¬
os from the filmmakers and their
scientific advisors, transcripts of
interviews with scientists who
speculated on alien life and future
technology, and well-chosen ex¬
cerpts from Clarke’s books. What
is not included is the fabled exten¬
sive footage that Kubrick trimmed
from the film after its initial week
of release. (Kuhrick also altered
STRANGELOVE after release so
that Slim Pickens' line that read
“pretty good weekend in Dallas"
was changed to “Vegas” following
Kennedy’s assassination, and he
trimmed an epilogue from THE
SHINING after its first week.)

MGM/UA has both a CLV and
subsequent CAV transfer of 2001,
which has whiter w hites and red¬
der reds. Unfortunately, this makes
the “Dawn of Man" sequence look
as if it were shot on Mars.
MGM/UA's discs are transferred
from a 65mm print that gives a bit
more picture information, measur¬
ing 2.25, and the CAV disc in¬
cludes an essay by Clarke, some
80 production stills including a
few- from deleted sequences, a
trailer, and a 30 minute promotion¬
al film created prior to the film's
release with Clarke explaining that
science fiction films prepare the
public for future technologies.

There is no question that many
felt transformed by Kubrick’s look
into the future, which confounded
traditional movie-going expecta¬
tions: there is minimal dialogue
and characterization; the plot is
largely cerebral; the most poignant
and disturbing death is that of a
computer, and in the end. mankind
achieves a dazzling transcendence
that pushes him beyond the realm
of our understanding, transforming
the film into a unique, quasi-reli¬
gious experience.

52

\imwmw

The spaceship Discovery heads for Jupiter In the greatest science-fiction film of all time. 2001; A SPACE ODYSSEY (1968).

A CLOCKWORK ORANGE
(Warner Bros.) is perhaps
Kubrick's most controversial film,
and after complaints, Kubrick
withdrew it from circulation in the
U K. (The film was never banned
there as it has sometimes been er¬
roneously assumed.) For an almost
30 year-old movie, it manages to
remain convincingly futuristic,
thanks to Kubrick's approach to
depicting urban squalor, basic
amenities, and varying fashion
styles. Many are repelled by the
film's violence and fail to see the
dark wit evident throughout.

Based on Anthony Burgess’
novel, the narrative explores of
concept of free will by examining
it in the context of an amoral thug
named Alex (a brilliant Malcolm
McDowell) who rapes and pil¬
lages until he is sentenced for
murder and volunteers to undergo
an experimental technique to cure
him of his violent tendencies
(thereby depriving him of free
will). The most charming villain
since Richard III. Alex continually
invites the audience to admire or
sympathize with him. making the
audience co-conspirators in his vi¬
cious crimes. (The title refers to
something natural transformed in¬
to something unnatural.)

Aesthetically. CLOCKWORK
is Kubrick’s ugliest film, with bad
taste in clothing and design evi¬
dent everywhere; but of course,
that is part of the point: that an
Alex would spring from such a
dispiriting environment. Kubrick
shows himself a master manipula¬
tor with a complete mastery of cin¬
ematic techniques all calculatingly
employed to achieve his effects
and mock authority of every stripe.
The initial transfer of the film was
slightly blurry, with off-colored

flesh tones, so Kubrick personally
supervised the letterboxed transfer,
which, apart from the opening and
closing credits, is otherwise pre¬
sented full frame with the colors
properly corrected and a clearer
monaural soundtrack.

Given Kubrick's reputation as
being cold and unsparing of his
audiences, many assumed that his
adaptation of Stephen King’s THE
SHINING (Warner Bros) would
lead to his creating the ultimate
horror film. But Kubrick con¬
founded expectations once again.
He instead created a cerebral hor¬
ror loosely based on King's talc of
an American family falling apart
from isolation and a father's guilt
over harming his son while intoxi¬

cated. Now that King himself and
director Mick Garris have created
a more faithful adaptation , it is
even easier to see the virtues of
Kubrick’s more creative approach
(the King-Garris version has some
tremendously well-executed se¬
quences. but cannot sustain them,
is overly long, and features a burn-
down-the-hole I ending straight out
of Roger Carman).

Kubrick has always been drawn
to large spaces in his films (the War
Room in STRANGELOVE; the
spaceship Discovery in 2001; the
ballrooms in BARRY LYNDON;
the barracks in FULL METAL
JACKET), and THE SHINING is
no exception, as the Overlook Ho¬
tel becomes a major character in
the drama. Rather than the genre
cliche of setting the story in a dark,
claustrophobic space, Kubrick cre¬
ates his horror in a bright, open en¬
vironment filled with corridors and
doors behind which lurk unexpect¬
ed horrors (who can forget such
images as the ax-murdered twins
or the elevator of blood), the worst
of which turns out to be a once lov¬
ing father transformed into a psy¬
chotic maniac who wields an axe
and spouts TV eatchphrases.
(“Herrrrre’s JohnnnyP)

From the very beginning,
Kubrick is able to create a disturb¬
ing atmosphere hy constantly clu¬
ing the viewers that, at the Over¬
look, things are not quite normal,
and many of the film’s atmospher¬
ic effects arc as subtle as Jack
Nicholson's over-the-top perfor¬

mance is broad, creating a film
that is simultaneously frightening
and funny. While Warners’ full
frame transfer features a forceful
monaural soundtrack, the image is
sometimes grainy and lackluster.

Madness is one of Kubrick’s
most important recurring themes.
We see it in the way generals re¬
gard their men as cannon fodder to
advance their careers in PATHS
OF GLORY; in the insanity of mu¬
tually assured destruction in DR
STRANGELOVE; in a computer
whose programmed enthusiasm
for (he mission causes him to kill
the astronauts who might disman¬
tle him after he has made a mis¬
take in 2001; in a writer driven to
destroy the young man who raped
his wife in A CLOCKWORK OR¬
ANGE; in Jack Torrance’s inabili¬
ty to cope with his wife’s lingering
distrust and his own writer's block
in THE SHINING; and in how a
misfit soldier is driven to murder
his drill instructor, how young men
are trained into dehumanized
killing machines, and how these
highly trained, misogynistic men
are bested hv a woman in FULL
METAL JACKET. ( Although not
a genre film, this is one of
Kubrick's most horrific movies,
filled w ith the violence of war,
young men whose only thoughts
are bumper sticker statements and
an appetite for destruction, and the
slow draining away of humanity
and individuality.)

Every one of Kubrick's films

<-<>nlinurd <in page hi

Aesthetically. A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1972) is Kubrick s ugliest film, portraying
a dispiriting, futuristic environment that leads to outbursts of "ultra-violence."

53

-i

By Steve Ryfle

Sometime during World War
II. the bones of (he prehistoric
Peking Man. an anthropological
specimen discovered in China,
mysteriously disappeared and
were believed lost forever. But.
thanks to Quentin Tarantino's
Rolling Thunder Pictures, the
creature (actually, its cinematic
sibling) has been rediscovered in
the form of the 1977 Shaw
Brothers KING KONG knockoff.
MIGHTY PEKING MAN
First released in Hong Kong
in 1977, and briefly distributed to
the U.S. in 1979 in a truncated
version called GOLIATHON, the
picture was re-released by
Rolling Thunder and Cowboy
Booking International (in its
original, uncut form) for
midnight screenings in 20 U.S.
cities in April. Made by the
studio that unleashed the first
international wave of kung-fu
films in the early 1970s with
FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH,
MIGHTY PEKING MAN was
supposed to capitalize on the
publicity surrounding director
John Guillermin's $30 million
KONG remake (1976), which
was released in Hong Kong just a
month before. But it cost only 6-
million HK dollars to make

Love! Adventure! And
Urban Destruction! Actress
Evetyne Kraft on appearig
in MIGHTY PEKING MAN

(about $500,000), a fraction of
KONG's budget, and it wore its
technical inferiority on its hairy
sleeve. According to Rolling
Thunder's publicity materials,
the movie grossed just $2 million
HK during its week-long initial
release and. after limited
international distribution, faded
into obscurity. Until now, that is.

Directed by Ho Meng-hua.
whose prior credits included
THE FLYING GUILLOTINE
(1976). MIGHTY PEKING
MAN fuses the King Kong
mythos with the Shaw Brothers*
knack for kinetic over-
exaggeration. From beginning to
end. the film is loaded with
action sequences, violence, and
mass destruction that, while not
executed exactly seamlessly, is
entertaining in its relentlessness.
As they had previously done with

Samantha calls to Mighty Peking Man. locked In a cage between carnival gigs.

their ULTRAMAN clone.
INFRA-MAN, the Shaw
Brothers ape (pun intended) the
Japanese formula of special
effects: a man in a monster
costume, miniature buildings,
lots of explosions, matte shots.
Most of the effects for MIGHTY
PEKING MAN were, in fact,
filmed by a freelance crew of
Japanese special-effects veterans
from Toho Studios, led by Teisho
Arikawa (special effects director
on SON OF GODZILLA and
DESTROY ALL MONSTERS)
and including a young Koichi
Kawukitu (special effects director
on all the 1990s Godzilla
movies).

But, more than the abundant
(and often absurd) effects, more
than the loopcd-and-loopy
dialogue, what makes MIGHTY
PEKING MAN more than just
routine monkey business is
Samantha, the big ape's ingenue,
played by a then-20-year-old
Swiss actress named Evelyne
Kraft. The fact that she's
Caucasian wasn't (he only reason
Kraft made so many Chinese
heads turn: she spends the entire
film clad in a very revealing
animal-skin bikini. Va-va-va~
vootn.! Huhha hubbaf
Rrrrowwwll!

Born to wealthy parents in
Zurich. Kraft was orphaned at
nine and raised by guardians. As
a teenager, she quarreled with
her court-appointed guardian and
turned to acting as a way to
escape her unhappy home life. At
17 she became the youngest
actress ever accepted into the
Theater School in Zurich; soon
thereafter, her ambitions (and her

Adventurer Johnny Feng (Danny Lee) Is captured by Mighty Peking Man.

inheritance) fueled aspirations of
becoming a movie mogul, and at
19 she co-produced a film in
Rome called EVIL EYE, with
German actress Anita Ekberg.
Evelyne also had a small part in
the film, and a cult star was born.
From there, she did theater work,
studied in the U.S. with actor Jeff
Corey, and appeared in about 15
European films before retiring in
1981 to raise a family. Her best-
known pictures, other than
MIGHTY PEKING MAN, are
the German-made LADY
DRACULA (1977) and two out
of three entries in the German
SUPERBUG trilogv (a LOVE
BUG rip-off).

“I got the part in MIGHTY
PEKING MAN through my
German agency," Kraft recalled.
"The photographs were sent to
Hong Kong, to Shaw Brothers,
and they just hired me based on
the pictures, based on my looks
alone. You didn't need to be a
good actress for that movie,
because it was all exaggerated.

At first I nearly cried, because I
said, ‘This isn't what I studied
acting for!' And of course I
couldn't communicate because
the director always spoke
Chinese, but I got to like Hong
Kong a lot and spent a lot of time
there and did another film for
Shaw Brothers in which I played
a kung-fu master, so I learned
Cantonese and Mandarin."

The cast of MIGHTY
PEKING MAN spent several
weeks in remote Mysore. India,
shooting the jungle sequences.
Kraft remembers the experience
fondly, although she says many
of her fellow cast and crew
became ill from the local food.
She says she did all her own
stunts—swinging Tarzan-style on
vines, riding elephants bareback,
swinging a leopard around by the
shoulders —even though her co-
star. he-man Danny Lee, was too
chicken to get near the wild
beasts. “It was quite dangerous,
because we were out in the
middle of nowhere, in India. In
Hollywood you're in a controlled
environment on a set, with
animal trainers standing by with
tranquilizer guns. We didn't have
any of that. We were in the
jungle, and there wasn't even a
proper hospital nearby." Kraft
also performed the incredible
feat of shimmying up a tree, her
legs wrapped erotically around
the trunk, a scene sure to become

54

aaw]@'®

The Mighty Peking Man-in-a-Suit
scales a Hong Kong skyscraper.

a classic. “That was so
embarrassing,” she said. “It looks
terrible!”

Kraft also recalls how her
voluptuous (and barely concealed)
figure caused a major distraction
to a huge crowd of extras on the
streets of Delhi, where one of the
crucial scenes, the Peking Man's
first appearance in the civilized
world, was shot. “That was funny,
because you know how in India
all the women are dressed, all
covered up? Well, when we were
shooting that scene, the director
told the crowd, 'Now everybody,
act afraid; the monster is over
there!* But everybody was

cantinued an png' fit

Exotic Evelyne Kraft plays the
beauty who tames the beast.

RESURRECTION

By Steve Ryfle

MIGHTY PEKING MAN
King Kong via Hong Kong.

Samantha (Kraft) is happily at home In the jungle before being lured to the big city.

At first glance, the Shaw Broth¬
ers’ 1977 demi-epic MIGHTY
PEKING MAN (Rolling Thun-
der/Cowboy Booking re-release.
4/99. 100 minutes, unrated) might
seem like the usual substandard
big-monkey-on-the-loose shenani¬
gans. But truly, this is the greatest
reworking of the archetypal man-
woman-ape love triangle since the
1933 KING KONG. Not that
there’s much competition: SON OF
KONG didn't cut it; the Japanese
didn't let the ape go head-over¬
heels in KING KONG VS.
GODZILLA and KING KONG ES¬
CAPES. and the two DcLaurentiis
KONGs just sucked, as did the Ko¬
rean-made A*P*E and the British-
made KONG A. As for MIGHTY
JOE YOUNG, he doesn't count be¬
cause he survives. MIGHTY
PEKING MAN has a tragic. Kong-
like finale in which the heart-bro¬
ken beast not only careens to his
death off a skyscraper; he’s blown
up in a gasoline explosion first!

To be fair. Mighty Peking Man
isn’t really an ape. hut a 10-story-
tall prehistoric primate (apparently
a gigantic version of the Peking
Man, fossils of which were found
in China earlier in this century). In
the 19b(ls. Mighty awakens, bursts
out of a snowy mountainside in the
Himalayas, flings boulders at some
terrified villagers, and retreats into
the jungles of India. A decade later,
an expedition to capture the beast
is organized by a big-toothed Chi¬
nese promoter and led by Johnny
(Danny Lee), a dejected young In¬
diana Jones-type who's just caught
his girlfriend sleeping w ith his
brother and really wants to get the
hell out of Hong Kong. En route,
the explorers are attacked by stam¬
peding elephants that flatten thatch
huts, and a vicious tiger that bites
off a man’s leg. Is this mission re¬
ally worth it?

Johnny doesn't find Mighty
Peking Man; it finds him, snatch¬
ing him up in a big, cloth-covered
mechanical paw. Johnny is rescued
by the ape's stepchild, the beauti¬
ful Samantha, whose parents were
killed in a plane crash years be¬
fore. and who now speaks only
jungle gibberish (and. apparently,
has discovered a jungle store that
stocks makeup and lipstick). When
the girl is snake-bitten (in the
crotch area, w hat luck!) Johnny
sucks out the poison, and they fall

in love. Given the choice of living
w ith a voluptuous blonde in a lush
natural paradise, or ruining every¬
thing by taking her and the big ape
back to civilization, Johnny of
course chooses the latter.

From here, it’s the usual stuff:
Mighty is put to work as a gargan¬
tuan circus freak (pulling Tonka
toys in a Monster Truck tractor-
pull event) and kept in a cage dur¬
ing off-hours. When Samantha is
nearly raped by the slimehag pro¬
moter. Mighty goes ape-shit and
trashes Hong Kong, before the
military puts an end to the misun¬
derstood monster.

MIGHTY PEKING MAN is
equal parts chop-socky flick.
KONG. MIGHTY JOE YOUNG,
TARZAN, and GODZILLA (the
final rampage through the minia¬
ture city has a particularly Japan¬
ese feel), not to mention THE
NAKED GUN (there are two ro¬

mantic montages set to cheeseball
music which are funnier, albeit un¬
intentionally. than Leslie Nielsen
and Priscilla Presley’s romp). Yes.
it's the postmodern kitsch factor
and the psychotronic elements—
obvious miniatures, the actor’s
eyes peering through the sockets
of the ill-fitting monster costume,
mismatched film stocks, wild ani¬
mals that seem doped-up to keep
them docile, bombastic music
score—that provide much of the
entertainment value, but no mod¬
ern monster film packs as much
action and spectacle into 90 min¬
utes. In an era when Hollywood is
bankrupting itself on dreck like
VIRUS and TriStar's GODZILLA,
MIGHTY PEKING MAN is a
throwback to those good old days
when technical virtuosity wasn’t
the only thing that mattered, and
low budget didn’t necessarily
mean low-octane.

55

saw oaw©

FILM RATINGS

CINEMA

By Steve Biodrowski

DEMOGRAPHIC DEMONS
Targeting teen viewers misses the mark.

For unoriginal filmmakers, the
great thing about appealing to a
youthful demographic is that the
intended audience will presumably
be too young to recognize what
they are seeing as a rehash of older,
better movies. Two new films at¬
tempt this gambit w ith more or less
success hy aiming at teen-agers,
while a third targets even younger
viewers, to disastrous effect. The
first (wo are so much alike that
they must be discussed together:
both are obviously derivative films
that one w'ould expect to be ab¬
solutely awful; yet both turn out to
be initially entertaining—up to a
certain point; finally, both descend
into bathos that confirms one’s ear¬
lier suspicions about their quality.
The third film is so bad that it
makes the first two look good.

WING COMMANDER (Fox.
3/99, UK) mins. PG-13) gets off to
a good start by placing us right in
the middle of a crisis and then
keeping the momentum going.
Freddie Prinze Jr/s wide-eyed
wonder and Matthew’ Lillard's
gung-ho enthusiasm are supported
hy an impressive cast of older
character actors (Tcheky Karyo,
Jurgen Prochnow, David Warner).
The effect is superficial but engag¬
ing—about the best one could ex¬
pect from a movie derived from a
video game that was itself obvious¬
ly inspired by STAR WARS. As
long as the film refuses to take it¬
self seriously it remains fun in an

Rachel (Emily Bergi) unleashes her
telekinetic fury In the derivative
climax of THE RAGE: CARRIE 2.

"Angel" Deveraux (Saffron Burrows) delivers a pep talk to her pilots in WING
COMMANDER, a space opera derived from STAR WARS and DAS BOOT.

undemanding way. Unfortunately,
as the familiar scenes start to pile
on. director Chris Roberts actually
thinks he can make us sympathize
w ith his characters on a deep emo¬
tional level. The attempt at heart¬
rending sincerity, noble sacrifice,
and uplifting spirituality only re¬
calls recycled WWII movies (in¬
cluding DAS BOOT) cross-polli¬
nated with the Force. The result
provokes guffaws of derogatory
laughter that destroy the marginal
entertainment value. On the other
hand, one ten-year-old kid in the
lobbv afterward said he loved it.

THE RAGE: CARRIE 2
(MGM. 3/99. 101 mins, R) is the
worst kind of sequel: essentially a
remake that doesn't pick up from
the original hut simply starts over
from the beginning. Fortunately.
Emily Bergi is fairly appealing as
the new telekinetic terror, and di¬
rector Katt Shea pulls off a few
nice scenes; the result is just good
enough to make you w ish it were
better. Unfortunately, Rafael
Moreu’s script goes to ridiculous
lengths to forge a link w ith its pre¬
decessor. mostly with surviving
character Sue Snell. Amy Irving
sleepwalks through the role, per¬
haps realizing that the basic plot
mechanics prevent her from actual¬
ly accomplishing anything. (We
know there's no chance she w ill
prevent another psychic-powered
bloodbath at the conclusion.) Lines
like “Are you sure you’re not still
trying to save someone who died
20 years ago?" don’t help.

The pandemonium that finally

erupts is overdone in a failed at¬
tempt to surpass the the original.
Too many extras get offed when a
more precise revenge, pinpointing
the real villains instead of innocent
bystanders, would have had more
impact. The film does manage a
gruesomely appropriate retribution
for an unrepentant statutory
rapist—a moment of good schlock
horror—but then throws the effect
away by trying to achieve a Romeo
and Juliet-type romantic-tragic
ending. As in WING COMMAN¬
DER. laughter ensues.

Ironically. laughter does not en¬
sue in BABY GENIUSES (TriS-
tar. 3/99, 94 mins, PG), the one
purported comedy reviewed here.
This film is so relentlessly awful
one wonders why (he studio even
bothered to release it. The target
audience is presumably toddlers,
but it’s hard to imagine parents tak¬
ing them to see a film that says it’s
a barrel of laughs when a two-year-
old sneaks out and wanders
through busy intersections and
down dark alleys unescorted. The
premise (that children are horn
with a priori knowledge and lan¬
guage that they lose when they
learn to speak adult language) is in¬
teresting. hut the story (co-written
by producer Steven Paul) fails to
elicit a single chuckle, and is often
downright stupid. Worst of all, af¬
ter boring us for an hour-and-a-
whalf. the film has the nerve to cap
itself w ith a musical montage of
previous scenes, as if we loved
them so much that we’d want to
see them again.

Must see
Excellent
Good
Mediocre
Fodder for MST-3K

Ravenous

IHrtdnr; YninniA Kirtl. Writer: Ini tinffin. Fm 2000
1W. |0| untilv R, Wild; c v u> Prinr, Hubert I utile,
Jeffrey Juart, |)i*id Vnjurttc. jrreim fiivm

Guy Pearce (L A. CONFIDEN¬
TIAL) is the haunted (apt. John Boyd,
a timid army officer whose ambiguous
heroics in the Mexican-American War
of 1847 prompt his commander to post
him to a remote California outpost in
the western Sierra Nevada. Under the
rather lax command of the bemused
hut despairing Col. Mart (Jeffrey
Jones), the fort’s liny detachment is
chafing under the boredom of long
winter months. Their tedious routine
ends when Colqhoun (Robert Carlyle)
staggers into the fort and relates his
horrific tale: he and his fellow
travellers ran into fierce winter storms,
forcing them to take refuge in a nearby
cave. When their meager food ran out,
they were forced to cannabili/e their
fallen companions. Only Colqhoun
managed to survive...

As the story progresses, a dark
thread of Indian lore. The Windign.
emerges: when a man eats the flesh of
another, he takes on the strength and
attributes of his prey. The drawback is:
once you start snacking on homo-
sap iens. you can never get enough. As
the characters consume more, (hey
become as hard to kill as any
Nosferatu, leading up to the gory
climactic duel between Boyd and the
chief cannibal who hopes to turn the
fort into his own personal eatery.

Of course, the issue at hand is a
moral choice: does Boyd give in to this
new unsavory appetite or resist, and
Pearce is excellent us a man fighting a
nightmare of moral bankruptcy. In this
respect, RAVENOUS resembles a
vampire flick in frontier dress, with
Boyd fighting the seductive offers of
renewed vitality and health offered by
the Dracula stand-in, with the fort's
environs serving as Gothic castle
(ironically, the film was shot partially
in the Czech Republic and Slovakia!).
Least satisfactorily explained is the
nature and limitations of the
"Windigo” process ilself: some
cannibals are dispatched with a quick
throat-slice; others have to be hit with
the proverbial kitchen sink (leading to
a nasty scene with a bear-trap).

If the movie stumbles, it's in the
consistency of the performances:
Pearce. Carlyle and Jones arc all fine,
but the remaining cast is erratic in the
extreme. Most cinephilcs will also
figure out the film’s Big T wist fairly
early on. certainly much quicker than
its hapless cast. Ultimately, the film is
a little too mannered at limes to truly
cut loose; however, its w it and risk¬
taking still makes it a savory for those
with the patience and gusto to
consume it. • ••Tixld t-rrmh

• •••

o

Samoa's?/©

BIBLIOFILE

By Dan Cziraky

AUDIO BOOKS AND A TV ENCYCLOPEDIA:
New things to see and hear from the Sci-li Channel.

I7o you hear what I hciir? Well, il
you've "been checking out the audio-book
section, chances are pretty good that you
do. Science-fiction, fantasy, and horror are
all fairly well represented in the arena of
fully realized audio productions. Some¬
times. it ’s just the text of a book being read
(often by the author himself), with some
appropriate background music. Or, in the
ease of The Sci-l i Channel's Seeing Ear
Theatre. VoL l (New Star Publishing. 2
cassettes, approximately 3 hrs. $18.00),
these are fully dramatized audio produc¬
tions. akin to such old-time radio shows as
Orson Welles’ 77n* War of the Worlds or
CBS Mystery Theater. In this case, these
productions were made for the Sci-Fi
Channel's website, l he Dominion
(www.scif.com). Each story is introduced
by noted genre author Marian Ellison, and
features the vocal talents of Mark liamill.

Marina Sirtis, and Michael O 'Hare. This
first collection of Seeing Ear Theatre
dramatizations includes three short come¬
dies (‘’They’re Made Out of Meat, I he
Toxic Donut,” and "Next") by Terry Bis¬
son; Brian Smith’s “Into the Sun;’’ "Think
Like a Dinosaur" by James Patrick Kelly;

"The Death of Captain Future" by Allen
Steele and Brian Smith; John KesseFs "A
Clean Escape;” and “The Bigger One" by
Gregory Benford. If you enjoy flexing
your imagination, it’s interesting to sit
back and listen to these, and let the images
appear in your head. Although the dramas
arc all well executed. I must admit 1 pre¬
ferred the daffy, extremely short "They’re
Made out of Meat.” Two aliens, searching lor
signs of intelligent lire, encounter messages
from Earth. They're amazed at the fact that,
well, we’re basically talking deli platters! Alter
much discussion, they decide nobody would
believe them if they even bothered to report us.

It reminded me ot the original BBC radio pro¬
ductions of Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker 's
Guide to the Galax)'.

Speaking of our cablc-TV friends. The Sci-
Fi Channel Encyclopedia of TV Science Tiction
bv Roger Fulton and John Betancourt (As¬
pect; Warner Books. 669 pp. illustrated, $15.99)
is a handy guide to over 200 science-fiction,
fantasy, and horror-themed shows from the U.S.
and Great Britain. Essentially an updated ver¬
sion of Fulton’s The Encyclopedia of TV Sci¬
ence Fiction . the book even retains some of its
original. Anglo-centric spellings. It s a huge ef¬
fort to try to assimilate over 50 years of science-
fiction television into one book—a hit-or-miss
prospect, at best. First ot all, are there really any
new- insights left to be discovered on DOCTOR
WHO, THE AVENGERS, STAR I REK. BA1-
TLESTAR GALACT1CA, THE INCREDIBLE
HUl K STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERA¬
TION, and LOST IN SPACE? Now. I'm as¬
suming that we re all fans of the genre here, and

Numerous old series like DOCTOR WHO (above) are covered
for the umpteenth time in The Sci-Fi Channel Encyclopedia
of TV Science Fiction, with little or no new insight.

that we’re all pretty much tired of having the
obvious endlessly regurgitated at us. Regarding
STAR TREK: “And the Vulcan's own inner
turmoil as he strove to reconcile his logical sell
with the human side ot his nature made him the
most interesting character." Really? Glad you
pointed that out for us. guys! Calling 1 ME
MAN FROM UNCLE “...a 19fitK escapist fan¬
tasy about the far-fetched exploits of a pair of
super-spies..." certainly puts it into perspective
for me Considering that almost every show in
the book, from THE ADDAMS FAMILY and
DARK SHADOWS to THETWILIGIH ZONE
and THE X-FILES have already had entire
hooks (if not several) devoted to them, there s a
lot of redundant information. In fact, you have
to wonder why they bothered with individual
episode synopses for shows like IREK and X-
F1LES. hut only listed episode titles for less la-
miliar shows, like FOREVER KNIGHT, VR5,
and AMERICAN GOTHIC. Why, THE AD¬
VENTURES OF BRISCOE COUNTY JR. and
THE FI ASH didn't even merit the episode tilk-
listings! And. can we truly consider THE FLY¬
ING NUN fantasy, despite the fact that Harlan
Ellison wrote two episodes of this show * Well,
there are problems with this book, both on an
organizational and a conceptual level. In fact the
last chapter. “Series Databank: 41 Obscure

Shows You'll Probably Never Hear of
Again," is the most interesting. In less than
six pages, they describe some shows that
sound far more interesting than most ot
what’s on the air today. I’d love to see
COME BACK MRS. NOAH, about a 21st-
centurv British housewife (Molly Sugden)
accidentally launched into orbit on a run¬
away space station, or I HE MONSl F,RS.
in which a zoologist discovers that a Loch
Ness-type monster not only exists but
threatens the future of mankind. Since 1 ac¬
tually learned something new. albeit not
about the shows on which the bitok primar¬
ily focuses. I’ll say that it might be of inter¬
est to sci-fi TV completists. However, if
you're wondering whether or not this book
will fit on shelves already overrun with
seventeen STAR TREK reference guides,
four different X-FILES companion books,
and two each on BA1 MAN and BUFFY
THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, then, no, you
don't need this book. However, you need a
life, very badly.

Speaking of people with personality
quirks, those pesky hunter aliens are back
in Predator: Big Game by Sandy
Schofield (Bantam Spectra, 226 pp.
$4.99), a novelization of the Dark Horse
Comics mini-series of the same name,
scripted by John Areudi. I his time, wc
find the nastv. dread-locked monster hunt¬
ing humans in the desert of New Mexico.
However, this hunt is just a little different,
as full-blooded Navajo Corporal Enoch
Nakai will soon learn. The Horned Mon¬
ster, a legendary fable of the Navajo, has come
from the skies, bringing death and blood. Nakai
doesn’t know it. but he is Naycnezgurtt. the
mythical monster-slayer of his people. He must
stand alone, with only the spirit ol his still-born
twin brother Tobadjishchini (the one who dis¬
tracts the monsters) to help him defeat this ex¬
tra-terrestrial killing machine. Bantam s series
of novels based on the two PREDATOR films
have all been based on the Dark Horse Comics
mini-series, and have all been satisfying exten¬
sions of those movies. Since the long-delayed
PREDATOR 3 and the abandoned ALIENS
VS. PREDATOR films haven't filled the void
since Danny Glover and Gary Busey battled the
beast in PREDATOR 2, these books have done
the job nicely. Predator: Big Game departs
from the previous entries in the series, in that it
doesn’t feature the brother of Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s character in the tirst tilm. as
did the other twit books, Predator: ( oncrete
Jungle and Predator: Cold War (both by
Nathan Archer). Schofield, by the way. is the
pen name of husband & wife team Dean Wes-
Icy Smith and Kristine Kathryn Kusch. who al¬
so wrote Aliens: Rogue. Fans ot the I REDA-
1 OR films will likely enjoy this book, but it’s a
pretty decent science-fiction story in its ow n
right.'

One of TV’s most chilling horror films .

The malevolent stranger Linoge. equipped with his signature wolf s head cane,
pays an unwanted visit on a sleepy Maine town In STORM OF THE CENTURY.

STEPHEN KING'S
STORM OF THE CENTURY

An \H( IA Vflvark Presentation uf * (irminii
PnrfLklum. K irvvtor pftidtttTO: Stephen kin*j. Mirk
I iHilfr: vflior pmdutfr, llniaiu HrndfL IHrrrfrd
h> i rmig H HiUry Mrillrti fur (he htw# h\ Slrphro
kmjc ( iurmittncnphi (Colort: fti'id Cornel* Mu*
lie: Editing: Saint Hat kin. Prudut llufl drvi|i:

Crii| Sdirit. Sound: liitid Lee* I aitiajc: Ltn
Krtud. 1 91 . * hn * trimmer u*U TV-U

Mike Andmoa._„__ 1 im I>nh

Matt; Ariin— . .Dfhnb Farrntinu

Vndrr linage---- ^ t **_CoIib Eronr

VlErtn lEiitrbi liitthrf--- i'm&ts SHmitika

K-pWiic Beeli......Jeffrey Ik-Munn

( at WitKrn.......JuUaaor Nktmlwa

Ralph Vndfnai. .Djitt ( hnMophrr

Mfliidt Hat* her,.....Sou Carat

Pippa Half her^*^„,—„-,——Skye Mrf ok

Samira Healt........ Nadi Hespnidtiirh

Kirk Fmm__—......Ilea it Komi

Heart Bright

.......... 1 briiiiiphar Marrrn

( aria Hnghi.

Frank Bright--Ttler BaBnrrman

Jack Carter^*_„™™-~:Slcrr Kan kin

by Frederick C. Szebin

Stephen King has come under
fire recently for the luck of quality,
not in his novels, hut in the filmed
adaptations of his literary cre¬
ations. After the network redo of
THE SHINING, some wondered
what could possibly be done with
what was left of his unfilmed
work. (I am surprised nothing has
been done with the short story “I
Am the Doorway.” Quite good,
that one.) King silenced critics
with vet another six-hour mini se¬
ries. STORM OF THE CENTU¬
RY. And. with no pun intended,
this winter-based Stephen King
Novel For Television is one of the
most chilling horror films ever
made for TV.

In Part One, we get to know
key residents of Little Tall Island,
a spit of land just off of Maine, one
of those charming New England
communities that takes care of its
ow n, holds its secrets, and leaves
the rest of the world to itself. Con¬
stable Michael Anderson (Daly)
arrests stranger Linoge. who, just
tn get some attention, kills a kindly
old lady. Anyone who enters his
line of vision is treated to the
scathing and sometimes unnerving
truth about themselves—some of
it illegal, all of it morally repre¬
hensible. As the snowstorm and
Linoge’s supernatural powers cut
Little Tall off from the rest of the
world, the stranger gives Anderson
his cryptic ultimatum: give me
what I want, and I'll go away.

Part Two has the town’s resi¬
dents gathered at the town hall’s
makeshift rescue center to ride out
the storm and watch helplessly as
Linoge’s hold over them quickly

grows: one teenager, possessed by
him, uses Linoge’s wolf’s head
cane to beat her cheating
boyfriend to death; old Cora
drowns herself in a bathroom sink
after writing the ultimatum on the
mirrors, and real estate man Rob¬
bie (DcMunn) barely holds on
with Linage's taunts of how his
mother died scared and alone in a
home. Robbie and even Anderson's
wife Molly (Farcntino) suggest that
killing Linoge themselves might
not he such a bad idea.

Part Three brings it all together
as more of the townspeople suffer
Linage's tortures, and he finally
reveals the meaning of his de¬
mand: he is an ancient being near¬
ing death, and he wants one of the
town’s children to raise as his
own—to teach and remake in his
image. It is here that King shows
how a town can fall apart when it
tries to take care of itself. Ander¬
son’s wife takes part in the lottery
to select the unfortunate child; An¬
derson is literally beaten down
when he tries to stop it, and their
own child is chosen—a move that
destroys their marriage and cuts
Anderson’s ties to the town.

King does here what he does in
his best long fiction: he creates an
entire town with recognizable
neighbors whose previously silent
foibles surge to the surface and de¬
stroy them. STORM is not only
tightly written—and one of the
few mini-series worthy of the
lengthened running time—it is
lightly directed by Baxley and re¬
mains suspenseful throughout.

Each episode builds on the previ¬
ous one. bringing the narrative to
its only logical, and genuinely
frightening, conclusion.

With a budget of over $3(1 mil¬
lion. every penny is on the screen.
At no time does the setting of this
snow-buried town look like a
set—a fault in nearly every other
purported epic for television. The
special effects are startling, and
never used to prop up the story,
which stands quite well on its own,
Although Tim Daly couldn’t keep
a Maine accent to save his life, he
is quite good, as is the rest of the
cast, populated by character actors
who can keep the accent going,
flesh out their roles, and bring im¬
mediacy to the proceedings, while
Feore is a subtle menace, able to
convey confident evil with a look.

STORM shows why Stephen
King became so famous in the first
place: he is able to get inside the
minds of his characters and have
them quickly or quietly fall apart
before us. The evil may he other¬
worldly. but the ultimate effects
stem from very human drama.
Gore doesn't do that; special ef¬
fects don’t do that. Only good sto¬
rytelling can hook the audience,
make them care when something
happens not only to a main charac¬
ter but also to a supporting play¬
er—because time was taken to
show us that person and allow us
to care. The true nature of evil is in
all of us, no matter how r pious.
Stephen King knows that, and can
make it work, lie and Baxley do it
here exceptionally well.

Made-fok-Television
Alice in Wonderland

Hirrclur: Nick Milium Nrrrtnplaf: Prlrr Baraev
fr«iEit (hr aatrl ht I l irmll, 1 rniutr Kffniv
Jim ftratat * 1 ! C rralnrr Shnp NBC-TV, Hallmark
K nirriAinmnii, Iff. 3 bn » tantnmiah. TV-PfL.
Willi: Tina \1ajurinn, Marlin Shuri. Hen Kiijtilo.
Mina if a Richardson. Whrmpir iUHdtirrg, (irbr
Wildrr, < britiophtr IJiiyd, Prlrr I’MIiut, (.curge
M rnril. Hnhtiir I uliranr

NBC has been doing a great justice
to fantasy fans over the past few years,
with THE ODYSSEY. MERLIN, and
GULLIVER’S TRAVELS being given
the lime of expanded formats to tell
their tales on’ihe small screen with big
screen aspirations. With $21 million.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND should
have heen another jewel in that crown,
hut it isn’t quite, despite everything it
has going for it.

The story is the same. Lewis Carrol¬
l’s surreal visions are brought to life like
never before, with endearing and won¬
drous visuals, beautiful sei design, in¬
credibly likable players and sure direc¬
tion using everything from complex CGI
to the elegant simplicity of forced per¬
spective. hut much of the production lays
flat. Pretty Tina Majorino is not to he
blamed, for she is a very good Alice,
heavy with a worrisome brow, or beam¬
ing with a lovely smile. Ike stars that get
to show any of (heir human faces through
the delightful makeup (Short, Goldberg.
Richardson, etc.) go for the gusto in
beautifully overwhelming performances.
And this is the perfect vehicle for Jim
Henson's Creature Shop to work their
magic w ith some cute sentient animals
that get across their emotions as well as
their more flesh-based co-stars.

It should he utterly charming, hul
for the life of me only the last few min¬
utes really raised a smile to my face,
despite a few chuckles here and there
throughout the evening’s entertain¬
ment Perhaps my feeling is based on
familiarity with the material, or the fact
that I'm not nine years old anymore. Or
is it that Mr. Disney weighs heavily on
my mind? That wouldn't be fair. Much
of this incarnation is directed at a
breakneck pace perfect for the unreali¬
ty of Alice's situation, hut using all of
Carroll’s work may ultimately have
brought down the more effective parts
of the picture. With all due respect to
the author’s work and memory (I don’t
care ahout any pedophiliac aspects read
into it. Doesn’t impress me.), the narra¬
tive does trudge on a hit. ALICE IN
WONDERI AND certainly would have
been a dog in four hours, hut it may
have been a peach in two. Eor all the
cinematic craft, and how lovely it all is.
ALICF. tripped on her way through the
forest and took a long, lumbering lime
in getting up. t feel like such a grouch.

• 1/2 Frederick C. S/ehin

I)k Who: The Mind of Evil

Hirrclur; 1i mirth) i 'ittihc. Wrilrr; Hud Houghton
(IS/Kai Vtttrn, rrlracnJ datr 1 W, With: Jim Prr-
|w**, kih Manning, Huger 1 let gad**, Hitbnlw < ourl-
k), Pik-Srn I im.

I have to admit that I don’t think
(from what little I’ve seen thus far) that
the BBC’s long-running DR. WHO sc¬
ries hit its stride until Tom Baker took
the role in IM74. Certainly his prcdc-

58

cessor, Jim Pcrtwee, hud a style
and charm all his own. but the
1^70 adventure "The Mind of
Evil" only hints at (hat in a
mediocre and overblown story. In
this six-part tale, the Doctor and
companion Jo Grant find them¬
selves embroiled with two vil¬
lains: the ever-aggravating Mas¬
ter (Delgado) and an alien brain
the Master has brought with him
encased in a machine that is to
erase evil tendencies from hard¬
core criminals. Unfortunately, the
beastie decides that it can gel
more to eat if it goes out on its
own. There is also some sub¬
terfuge involving the Chinese
delegate at the World Peace con¬
ference when he is murdered hy
his military advisor, who is under
control of the Master, who plans
to use the convicts at the prison
where the mind wipe machine
goes out of control to help him
hijack a nerve gas missile in the
hands of UNIT (the United Na¬
tions Intelligence Taskforce) to
destroy the Peace Conference.

It all gets a hit convoluted,
with the mind-controlled Chinese offi¬
cer (Uni) leaving by the third episode
so the good Doctor can focus on the hi¬
jacked missile and the Master's intrud¬
ing alien mind munchcr. As was often
the case with DOCTOR WHO. the ac¬
tors rise admirably above the show's
back lot production values. The two
story lines really don't fit together very
well. Placed side hy side, they seem
like filler for each other to complete a
six-part story that could have been told
in four. Not being too familiar with
Pertwee’s episodes. Jo Grant seems
hopelessly useless most of the lime, not
like Sarah Jane or Leela, who could
usually hold their own against much of
what was thrown at the Doctor.

The Mind Of Evil" is strictly for
the hardest and most curious of diehard
DOCTOR WHO fans who might enjoy
the historical curiosity of this black-
and-white adventure that was original¬
ly shot in color The only color footage,
(hough, exists at the end of the tape, a
replay from a scene early in the story
that shows the Doctor’s fine red coat,
Pertwee’s handsome silver hair, and
Bessie’s shiny yellow exterior. Fortu¬
nately. later stories have been salvaged
in their original formal and are avail¬
able to all for better or worse. This one
is a lesser adventure, a hit long in the
tooth. • 1 12 Frederick C. S/chin

Invasion Earth

llirrilim: Fflfrkk 1 su irpitiidr* 1*3) anti Ho hard
I jtUun trpititdo 4-fci. Writer: Jed Mmurm \irrd
un Sri FI < hannrl 12 9R CBS MIX Video rrJriir
dale: I 99, 2h 1 mint- With irrd Ward, Maggie
iVNnJI. Pin Hi* I *n:an, N iiurnl krpti

Ibis spraw ling, impressive, though
noi all together satisfying S7.5 million
mini series co-produced by BBC-Scot-
tand and the Sci Pi Channel hegins
w hen Flight Lieutenant Chris Drake
(Regan) disregards orders and shoots
dow n a UFO. The survivor of the crash
is Terrell, a WWIl-era human who vol¬
untarily went with the white-skinned
aliens to learn their culture. What he

TOM CLANCY’S NETFORCE

CBS Fox Video continues to release episodes of the DR. WHO TV series. The most recent
to make its bow on cassette. "The Mind of Evil," stars John Pertwee, the third Doctor.

learned is that a race called the NDs is
systematically destroying every race it
comes in contact w ith. Now . they have
reached Earth. At the same lime as
Drake's air fight, scientist Dr. Amanda
T ucker (O'Neill) picks up an unusual
satellite transmission aimed into deep
space. A formal investigation is
launched hy NATO-assigned U S.
Air Force officer Major General David
Reece (Ward); and soon Drake. Tucker
and Reece discover that they are all ND
fodder in a subtle plan by the aliens to
breed men out of the race, leaving
women to become human cattle, breed¬
ing for the ND s purposes.

The cast is uniformly excellent,
and handsome CGI gives the program
an impressive scale, but Mercurto's
script sabotages the effective moments
of surprise, suspense and fear by being
so frusirattngly typical. As the series
progresses, it gets slower, so that by
episode five the ND invasion is pro¬
gressing at a genuinely stately pace.
Fortunately, the pace picks up in that
episode's last III minutes and in
episode six. when the ND's make their
move. Characters act as exposition ex¬
perts, telling us what’s going on in
snatches of dialogue that seem more
like wild guesses, and Drake becomes
an alien expert merely hy being the
one who shot the first one down, and
no matter how many boners this char¬
acter pulls he still remains a close
member of the team, a military im¬
probability. The script is full of such
holes, like letting T ucker continue se¬
cret experiments on her own after be¬
ing infected by ND DNA and showing
signs of becoming more like them!
There is a satisfying down-beat end¬
ing. and exciting moments throughout,
but it all could have been cut down to a
possibly more effective two hours or
so. As it stands, the effects are nice.
Scotland is pretty, and alien invasions
seem to he able to move as rapidly as
continental plates.

• 1/2 Frederick C. S/rhin

Space Truckers

iHmfor; Siiuti Ckinfatt Wriirrt Tfd Mibb; by
Stuart Crtirdun *m 1 Trd Mibb, PdkIulUiib llniiB'
wt: Simna Mui (oft Special I'ffcili Super*bon: Bri¬
an Ji»hDM»B and Paul Grntr?, \ddiiinaal K\ and
Make i p h% <#rrR < annum, Opltc Srnr, and
Screaming Mad Gear*e I1RO-TV, I 99 100 mmv
P( *-13k With: UrBBii lliipper, Mrphrn EtarfT, held
VU/ir H C harlrx Dance, (*rorgr Wendt, Harhara
Cram pi on.

Although shot in a widescreen for¬
mal in anticipation of a theatrical re¬
lease. this independent production
wound up making its debut on HBO-
TV after failing to find a domestic dis¬
tributor. Certainly no STAR WARS,
this charming bit of camp still didn't
deserve the obscurity of cable. It would
have been a fun viewing experience on
the big screen thanks to nice produc¬
tion design and effects. Space Trucker
John Canyon (Hopper) hooks up with
his fiance (Mazar) and young jock
Mike (Dorff) w hen they get into some
trouble in a space bar after evil pork
merchant George Wendt is sucked out
a window butt first. To get off the sta¬
tion they accept a secret shipment that
turns out to be the bio-mechanical
Geiger-inspired super killing machines
created hv scientist Macanudo (Dance)
who had his own creation turned
against hint and rebuilt himself into a
cyborg space pirate with a crew (hat
does everything pirates do, except say
“Arrg!" Macanudo inadvertently re¬
leases the killer hots and the rest of the
story has everyone trying to avoid them
as they attack in ever increasing waves.

Little winks of the eve are given to
STAR WARS. 2001: A SPACE
ODYSSEY. ALIEN. RARBARELLA
and even FLESH GORDON in an
amusing bedroom scene between
Ma/ar and Dance that seems dropped
right out of that early I07(ls softcore
cull hit The entire production is played
fight and for fun. and although it is
never drop dead hilarious, SPACE
T RUCKERS is an unchallenging hit of
pulp puff to supply a smile on a rainy
Saturday afternoon, or during a fit of
insomnia. •• 1/2 Frederick C. S/chin

llim lfir: Rubrrl UrEwnBia. Writer: Ijunrl
t hrtwtad. ABC-TV 2 99. lour buun « ti)tn-
nirruMh With: Sc«t1 Himli, J<»inm (acting,
Krts knilDjibrnui, Brian Draarh^ Judgr
Hfiahold, Yaatlrr BcrluHr*

In the first half-hour of this
over-long Internet thriller
snooze-fest. Kris Kristopherson
(he of the exceedingly dry deliv¬
ery) makes a comment that it
might have been better in the
good old days when letters could
be sent w ith good old fashioned
postage stamps. Amen to that,
brother. Because if this is any ex¬
ample of the type of "thriller” we
can expect in the information
age, then let’s pull the plug now
and stop wasting all that phone
lime.

In the year 2005, the FBI has
created Netforce, a branch of law
fighters independent of Hoover’s
brainchild that uses technology of
the day to police the Internet. It
seems that the Mafia has joined
forces with their Chinese coun¬
terpart to do their dirty deeds
over the phone lines, so of course
Alex Michaels (Bacula) and his crack
team led by Steven Day (Kristopher¬
son) use everything in their futuristic
arsenal, including E-warrants, video
gun sights, and lots of keyboard lime to
make sure the net is safe for anyone
wanting to download fake dirty pic¬
tures. So. there's a lot of airtime given
to false leads, poor detective work, and
plot twists that aren't all that twisty that
lead to the door of Bill Gates-type Will
Stiles (Reinhold), who wants to use his
ingenious new web browser lo corner
the information market and rule the
world or something with the help of a
group of enuntry-fied rednecks he
broke nut of a maximum security
prison by using the—gasp!—Internet.
Shows just how unsafe our immediate
future is, I guess.

There is lots of dark, misty cine¬
matography w ith plenty of the shadows
and silhouettes that pass for visual style
these days—or that at least try lo cover
the multitude sins created hy inadequate
budgets and shooting schedules. Actors
staring concernedly at computer screens
can be gripping entertainment, hut only
if the viewer has an emotional invest¬
ment in gripping drama. NETFORCE
doesn’t have that. Director Lieberman
keeps his camera moving, and all the ac¬
tors do their best, but best-selling novel¬
ist and co-executive producer Clancy
hasn’t given them the material lo bite in¬
to. The always good Dennehy is particu¬
larly wasted as country Tied Presidential
aide spewing ridiculous animal-based
homilies whenever he gets angry, which
is in every scene given to him. Even a
shorter running time couldn't have
helped this techno-mush that purports
that ihe destruction of the Internet
would mean world calamity. A brief
nuisance, perhaps, but maybe using the
Net to launch missiles, terrorize hospi¬
tals and airlines and other such nastiness
might have been more immediate, and
certainly more interesting.

Frederick C. S/e bin

59

THE SCORE COMING ATTRACTIONS!

By Randall d. Larson The two-minute film scores ofJohn Beal.

This music is powerful, like
good film music should he. It su¬
percharges the emotional impact of
what is on screen. Like the best
film scores, this works as a compo¬
nent of celluloid drama, proffering
palette-full of interesting nuances.
Unlike the best film scores, how¬
ever. it’s only two minutes long.

This is music for trailers—
those two- to four-minute "Com¬
ing Attractions” that run in the¬
aters before the movie starts, and
those 15-, 30-, and 60-second
spots that mingle among the com¬
mercials on your television set.
Their purpose is to sell movies. In
a hurry. The music is designed to
grab your attention. Quickly.

Contrary to popular belief,
trailers rarely contain music from
the films they promote. This is be¬
cause the trailer is usually made
before the film’s score has been
recorded. Composing for trailers is
one of the most challenging tasks
in film music. The composer must
create multiple sensations of
thrills, intensity, adventure, ro¬
mance, or whatever the marketing
department is trying to accentuate
about the film they're advertising,
and relate it quickly in a multitude
of musical sound bytes.

John Beal has been composing
music for theatrical and television
trailers since the 1980s. Unlike
other composers who score trailers
as a step up the ladder toward a ca¬
reer in movie scoring. Beal com¬
poses exclusively for trailers. With
a versatile background in pop and
rock music—having performed
and arranged for such stars as
Olivia Newton-John. B.B. King,
Gladys Knight, and Johnny Math¬
is—Beal worked as supervisor of
music recording for mitre than 20
TV specials or mini-series, includ¬
ing the Emmy Award-winning
score for Stephen King’s IT, His
mentors include renowned percus¬
sionist and composer William
Kraft. African Ethnomusicologist
Craig Woodson, and film com¬
posers Bari Hagen. Dominic Fron-
tiere. and George Duning. Prior to
launching Keeltime Music Incor¬
porated and devoting himself al¬
most entirely to scoring trailers,
Beal composed the music for films
such as THE FUNHOUSE and
TERROR IN THE AISLES, as
well as several comedy and dra¬
matic TV series.

Since 1984, Beal has become
the industry’s leading provider of
original scores for trailers. His mu¬
sic has been heard by more movie¬
goers than most feature film com¬
posers. and he is trusted by virtual¬
ly every major director and studio
to write original music to help sell
their films. Beal’s list of over 500
theatrical and TV trailer scores in¬
cludes campaigns for such hit
films as SPECIES II, VOLCANO,
ALADDIN. I KNOW WHAT
YOU DID LAST SUMMER.
DEADLY BLESSING, GHOST,
and DEAD AGAIN. TTiis is Sound
Byte Film Music at its finest.

Often a composer has not even
been hired by the time the trailer is
in production. Trailers are there¬
fore scored with recycled music
from other films or with original
music composed especially for the
trailer. Even if the film's music is
available in time, it may not lend
itself to the style of a marketing
campaign. "Sometimes we sell an
intimate two-character story with
big, sweeping thematic material,
because the score, although perfect
for the drama, is just too small in
scope for generating ticket sales."
said Beal.

Science fiction and horror trail¬
ers have afforded Beal the oppor¬
tunity to unleash his musical
prowess through a deft cohesion of
electronic and orchestral music.
For THE PAGEMASTER. Beal
used electronically sampled instru¬

ments simulated by computer.
"The producers tried a half dozen
other composers using big orches¬
tras at considerable expense," said
Beal. “They finally came back to
me, and Joel Rosenhaum turned
my sketches into an amazing or¬
chestration, which really helped
me enhance the animation. The
producer was amazed that timings
could be caught mathematically.
He seemed under the impression
you played along with the picture
until everything came out right!"

His comedic trailer music for
THE MASK remains one of his fa¬
vorites. “I got to write in the style
of Danny Elf man gone over the
top!" he grinned. For SPECIES II.
Beal was asked to create a piece
similar to the slow-rolling-swell-
into-hig-hit that caused people to
jump out of their seats in CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS. Apparently Beal
succeeded, because a number of
people on the Internet accused him
of “stealing" the idea. "Films like
DEAD AGAIN and BODY
PARTS were the hardest." said
Beal. “They are primarily sound-
scapes, and were done prior to
having all the wonderful electronic
samples available today." Beal
used ordinary sounds and then
pitched, warbled, washed, and re¬
versed them until he came up w ith
the sense of dread required.

The musical needs of trailers
are not always the same as those of
the film they are advertising. “A

score which is perfect for a film is
often not constructed in such a
way as to work well in the short
burst of a trailer." said Beal. “An
original trailer score must incorpo¬
rate a style appropriate to the film
w hile serving Jhe needs of the of¬
ten mind-numbing flashing of
short scenes and hursts of dialog
and narration.” In the sound-byte
world of advertising, the music
must instantly reach an audience,
convincing them in two minutes
that they Must See This Movie! A
trailer score must (low smoothly,
glue its short, rapid-fire scenes to¬
gether, and help the viewer come
away with a true understanding of
the film. The frantic pace of a
trailer carries over into its produc¬
tion. Beal prefers to have a week
to compose, orchestrate, and
record a trailer, but he has been
known to turn one around in only
two days. “1 can write an entire
trailer, including the master
ready’ final orchestral sample
mock-up, in anywhere from three
to eight hours,” said Beal. “I d
rather not, but I do. Then I spend
another four-eight hours grooming
each individual part and getting
the mix as good as 1 can. With a
live orchestra. 1 need extra lead
time to properly orchestrate, copy,
and hook the best studio and finest
players Hollywood has to offer ”

"The most exciting terror trail¬
er I ever did was for DEADLY
BLESSING, a film which was lat¬
er scored by James Horner.” said
Beal. “The trailer producers liked
THE OMEN and asked—without
temp tracking—if I could do
something in that style. I wrote a
cue combining the structure of in¬
tone polychords in progression
with specially written Latin lyrics
for the choir. It came out pretty
hair-raising. I got a standing ova¬
tion for that trailer from the or¬
chestra. and many stayed to hear
the mixdown session."

Inexplicably, the day after the
trailer score was recorded. United
Artists sent a representative to the
studios who seized all the masters
and cassettes. “All I had was the
cassette I walked out with at the
end of the session,” said Beal.
“I’m told they literally burned all
the materials that same day! Kinda
spooky. They used it for the trail¬
ers, though. Go figure. X-FILES
stuff.”

60

Chaney’s eye is clearly visible through the Mummy mask as Kharis sips tana
juice administered by Egyptian priest Peter Coe (I) and acolyte Martin Kosleck,

THE MUMMY WALKS

f ontinurd fmiu pagr 39

said. ’Tell her not to worry. It's just
a Denver mudpack.’”

In truth, Virginia had reason to
worry: Pierce had experimented
with a makeup that was very se¬
vere. As a Universal memo of Sep¬
tember 22, 1444 later confided:
“As originally planned, these
scenes were actually to he made
with trick photography. However,
alter we discovered that the make¬
up and conditions under which
Miss Christine would have to
work were apt to cause serious re¬
sults to her features, this plan was
abandoned...."

What followed was horrible
enough. Christine would never
forget Jack Pierce’s painstaking
application of the "Denver Mud-
pack": “I was in the makeup chair,

I think, at 4:30 in the morning.
They took little patches of cotton,
wet with witch hazel, put them on
and lined them to fill in the youth¬
ful contours. Then Jack put on the
‘Denver Mudpack.’just a little bit
at a time, then lined that with wrin¬
kles, then blow-dried it—each lit¬
tle patch until I was an absolutely
rigid mask. And we made a mis¬
take in wardrobe. We had the arms
bare—so we had to to do the arms
and the hands, too. Well, it took
forever, and, of course, a very hu¬
man thing happened—I had to go
to the bathroom. Jack's wife was a
body makeup lady, and she took
me. like a child, to the bathroom,
and pulled my panties down.
Well, I have this sense of humor
that’s very close to the surface, but
I couldn't laugh because the make¬
up would crack and they would
have to start all over. It was just
too ridiculous!”

Fortified by a malted milk. Vir¬
ginia, in full mummy guise, was
driven to the hack lot. A crowd
congregated to see the female
mummy rise from its swampy
grave: "They took me out on the
back lot. where the grave was dug,
right in the soil—not clean, silled
sand! Then they covered me with
burnt cork; then they sprayed it
with water. Here. I'm lying in the
earth with only my nostrils open
for breathing—and I began to
think of all the things that crawl in
the earth.... Then, at the last
minute, they put the burnt cork
(that looks like soil) over my face.

I had to get up. and walk—into a
stinking, slimy, infested pool, cov¬
ered with algae, down two or three
steps into the pond, and wade in up
to my neck... Well, for the first
time in my life, I was ready to
scream. ‘No. I can’t do it!* because
it’s so awful to look at! But then I
thought, ‘You wanted to he an ac¬
tress—let's go!'Anyway, finally it

was over, and then everybody was
very helpful. The limousine was
there, and they had a drink for me,
and towels, and the whole bit."

Completed at a cost of
$127,535 (about $4500 over bud¬
get), the film played its first en¬
gagements just before Christmas,
1444, when it opened in Holly¬
wood on a double bill with
HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN.
On March 3(1, 1445. CURSE head¬
lined at New York’s Rialto. New
York Post film critic Archer Win-
sten noted: “Lo! It's a female
mummy... You will be safe in as¬
suming there has never been a
mummy half as well-built or a
quarter as good-looking. Just for
the record, her name is Virginia
Christine. Lon Chaney pursues
her. as who would not...”

The critics had long had it in
for the Mummy, and John Mc¬
Manus of New York’s PM almost
made THE MUMMY’S CURSE a
national wartime social and eco¬
nomic issue: “Because the big stu¬
dios have first priority on available
film, there is a shortage of film
available for independents, educa¬
tional films, etc. This is how one
big studio expends its film ration.”

Perhaps Universal was finally
chastened: THE MUMMY’S
CURSE ended the series. Virginia
Christine went on to a long career,
including a lucrative 20-year stint
as Mrs. Olson of the Folger's Cof¬
fee commercials. CURSE would
haunt her all her life, although she
claimed she didn’t mind: “After
all," she’d laugh, “that was one of
mv life experiences!’’ She died in
1446.

As for Lon Chancy, he again
donned the Mummy makeup for
1454’s Mexican feature LA CASA
DEL TERROR, as a mummy
who’s also a werewolf; and for the
famed 1462 ROUTE 66 TV
episode “Lizard’s Leg and Owlet's
Wing,” in which he also appeared
as the Hunchback of Notre Dame

and the Wolf Man. (On the same
show. Boris Karloff appeared in
Frankenstein Monster makeup,
and Peter Lorre got into the act in
a cape and top hat.)

“...I guess from the horror as¬
pect. the character was okay,” said
Chaney in a late-in-life interview
with Castle of Frankenstein maga¬
zine. Lon Chaney died in 1473 at
the age of 67.

While Kharis was not included
in the monster rallies HOUSE OE
FRANKENSTEIN (1444) and
HOUSE OF DRACULA (1945),
he was given the honor of meeting
Abbott and Costello. For Univer¬
sal-International. Bud and Lou had
enjoyed success with ABBOTT
AND COSTELLO MEET FRANK¬
ENSTEIN (144X), ABBOTT AND
COSTEL LO MEET THE INVISI¬
BLE MAN (1451). and ABBOTT
AND COSTELLO MEET DR.
JEKYLLAND MR. HYDE (1453).
The tail end of the cycle was AB¬
BOTT AND COSTELLO MEET
THE MUMMY (1955). There was
a certain significance in the cast¬
ing of The Mummy (here called
“Klaris”): Eddie Parker, a stunt
man w ho had reportedly doubled
Chaney in THE MUMMY’S
TOMB. Parker roared as the Mum¬
my—a strange and ineffective
touch. Directed by Charles Lam-
ont, the film was shot October 28
to November 24. 1454. on a budget
of $738,254—which was apparent¬
ly more than Universal had spent
on the original THE MOMMY and
all its sequels combined. It w as re¬
leased in May of 1955, and proved
Abbott and Costello’s final film
with a monster—and last movie
for Universal-International.

As we consider the 1444 re¬
make of THE MUMMY, we natu¬
rally remember the original Im-
Ho-Tep and Anek-cs-en-Amon.
Kharis and Ananka. that beauty
parade of starlets in negligees, that
wild-eyed coven of lecherous high
priests. And as the new Mummy

“comes to life." they—and Amon-
Ra—are watching,

LASERBLAST

t ontinurd fmrii pagr S3

offers something memorable and
worthwhile. One wishes more di¬
rectors would follow his lead and
make movies that matter rather
than pictures that are nothing more
than grist from the production
mill. It is disturbing to think that
an entire generation has come of
movie-going age without experi¬
encing a Kubrick film in a theater;
fortunately. Kubricks cinematic
savvy and genius are more than
adequately preserved on video to
be savored and enjoyed again and
again. His films provide for end¬
less hours of entertainment,
thought, and discussion, and no
one who truly appreciates cinema
would be without them.

EVELYNE KRAFT

mniinurd From pagr 55

looking at me—all these Indian
men and women were so shocked
because 1 am standing there wear¬
ing these animal skins. They were
all staring at me, instead of look¬
ing in the direction they were sup¬
posed lo.”

Unfortunately, Samantha dies
at the end of the picture, struck by
a spray of helicopter gunfire
aimed at her beastly outsize
boyfriend. But Kraft is delighted
that, 22 years later, Samantha and
Mighty Peking Man are rekindling
their love affair for modern audi¬
ences. “I am very surprised at the
interest in this film, because it’s a
B-class movie. If you took at the
production, it cost $500,000, com¬
pared to the KlN(i KONG film
which cost $30 million! But
there’s something nice about this
film. You could fall in love with
this monster, because he’s sensi¬
tive and even civilized, you
know.” □

TARZAN

fttnlinurd fnun pa^r 7

never clashing with the traditional
animation or loosing the “painter¬
ly" style of the backgrounds. “If
you watch the movie, I dare you to
tell me where the Deep Canvas
stops and the 2-D starts. It’s the
marriage of the 2-D with this 3-D
process that the animators have
done so masterfully. It all feels like
it has depth and dimension.”

This depth and dimension has
also heen applied to the characters
and story of TAR/AN, so much
so. that the filinakers were careful
when fashioning the supporting
players. “We wanted Tarzan to be
the most memorable character in
the film. So, we tried to have the
other characters support that.” said
Arnold, adding, “Our goal was not

61

CINEFANTASTIOUE MERCHANDISE ORDER FORM

{Cut out or photocopy)

Ordering Information:

* For subscription orders, make checks payable
to individual magazine title (Animefantastique,
Femme Fatales etc.)

* All other orders, make checks payable to
Cinefantastique

* Foreign orders, please pay by credit card or
international postal money order only (US funds).

* Refunds or exchanges given (or damaged
merchandise only. No refunds on subscriptions.

* Mail to: Cinefantastique.

P.O, Box 270,

Oak Park. IL 60303

* Allow 6 to 8 weeks lor delivery.

CINEFANTASTIQUE

BINDER

Keep your copies of
Cinefantastique m mini
condition Securely holds
12 issues Easy to insert
and remove Blue vinyf
$11.95

CINEFANTASTIQUE

t-shirt

Our high quality,
attention g rabbi ng
original White on Jet
Black, Please indicate
size: small, medium,
large $11.00

FEMME FATALES
BINDER

Keep your copies of
FF in mint condition
Securely holds 12 issues
Easy to insert and
remove. Cream colored
vinyl. $11,95

ORDER BY PHONE (Visa/Mastercard) 1-800-798-6515

Answering machine only for credit card orders. For customer service please call (708) 366*5566

(PLEASE PRINT)

ITEM OR TITLE VOL- & ISSUE # COVER PRICE QTY. TOTAL

(Add additional Items on a separate sheet)

Subscriptions:

CINEFANTASTIQUE

□ 12 issues $48 ($55 Canada.foreign) J 24 issues $90 ($100 Canada foreign)

1 am a new subscriber Please send me the following tree back issues

(one issue for each 12 issues you subscribe lo): Vol * Issue # Vol # Issue 1:

ANIMEFANTASTIQUE (Please include separate check, payable lo Animefantastique)
j 4 Issues $20 ($23 Canadalorelgn) □ 8 issues $38 ($44 Canadaloreign)

1 am a new subscriber Please send me (tie following tree back issues

(one issue tor each 4 issues you subscribe to). Vol. 4 Issue * Vol. * issue *

FEMME FATALES (Please include separate check, payable to Femme Fatales)

□ 17 issues $65 ($77 Canadalorelgn) □ 34 issues $125 ($140 Canadalorelgn)

1 am a new Femme Fatales subscriber or a subscriber renewing lor 34
issues Please send me the FREE autographed KILLER EYE video [J

Shipping Charges SUBTOTAL

‘ Magazines: Free shipping

•T-shirts: $1.50 ea. TAX

• Binders: $3 00 ea < IL on| y ; 7 - 75 *>

■ Books, trading cards or calendars: $1 .50 U.S. - $3.00 Canada/Foreign ea. SHIPPING

• Videos: $4 50 ea.

(Magazines. books. T-shirts, posters and binders are shipped U.S. mail.

Videos are shipped UPS.) TOTAL

Ship to: cfo 3i s

Name:___

Address_____

City__State_ZIP_

Method of Payment:

Visa f Mastercard C Check or Money Order

Card Number__Expiration Date_/__

Signature__

62

We are overstocked on
the back issues shown right
on page 63 and must make
room in our warehouse for
new issues. For a limited time
these issues are available in
bulk to stores and dealers at
the amazingly low price of SI
per copy for single issues and
$2 per copy for double is¬
sues. These are mint copies
never before sold or distrib¬
uted. Issues come boxed 100
single issues or 50 double is¬
sues per box {printer's count
approximate), minimum order
one box per issue. Price in¬
cludes UPS shipping any¬
where in the continental USA,
Payment in advance re¬
quired. No billing, no ex¬
changes, no returns. Make
checks payable to Cinefan¬
tastique and mail to P. O. Box
270. Oak Park. IL 60303.
Phone orders accepted with
Mastercard and Visa only at
1-800-798-6515.

to have the supporting characters
he the most interesting. Tarzan
should he the most memorable.”

Arnold also noted that the story
and the journey of TARZAN is one
that will resonate with audiences,
especially today. “Tarzan realizes
that it doesn't matter which family
you’re born to. Life is about sur¬
rounding yourself with people you
hive and who love you and if peo¬
ple take that away from the film. 1
feel we’ve accomplished a lot."

CLASSIFIED ADS

Reach thousands of avid horror fantasy and
science fiction fans wrth your ad Classified ads
in this space are SO 75 per word, caps SO 25
extra per word, bold caps SO 50 extra per word
Display space is availahie at $75.00 per column
inch tor camera ready ads All ads are payable
in advance Send your insertions to CFQ, PO
Bo* 270. Oak Park. IL 60303

t.000.000 VIDEO MOVIES SOUNDTRACK
LPS1 HORROR, SCI-FI, MORE! VIDEO CATA
L0GUE—$1.00. DESCRIPTIVE—$9.95.
SOUNDTRACKS—$1.00. RTS/CO* BOX
93897* LAS VEGAS. NEVADA 89193.

—

fASTIQUE

CIHEFANTASTI QUCl

Volume 14 Number 4-5

Tfte compteto behind
the scenes story of DUNE
Indudes everyone from
designers to director Also
features a David Lynch
retrospective including
ERASERHEAD *14.00

Volume 24 Number 2

Behind the scenes of
JURASSIC PARK,
including ILM's effects
This issue also features
ROBOCOP 3. PREHISTE
RIA and Roger Corman s
CAHNOSAUR *8.00

Volume 25 Number 3
FUNTSTONES COVER

Making THE
FUNTSTONES. Also,
2001: Douglas Trumbull
discusses his special
effects and working with
Kubrick *8.00

Volume 16 Number 4-5

A very comprehensive
study on the making of
Allred Hitchcock's
PSYCHO Also features
THE FLY. David
Cronenberg's remake
and the anginal *14.00

Volume 14 Number 3

In depth retrospective
ot the Disney's 20,000
LEAGUES UNDER THE
SEA Also features
CHRISTINE with Stephen
King, Roy Arbogast and
others *8.00

Volume 18 Number 2-3

Movie poster artists of
the 1950s. Over 60
colorful pages of art,
profiles and interviews
Also features Italian
auteur Dario Aigenlo's
OPERA *14.00

Volume 12 Number 5-6
STAR TREK cover

Making STAR TREK II:
THE WRATH OF KHAN,
plus an in-depth look at
BLADE RUNNERS
dazzling design and
effects work. *14.00

Volume 25 Number 4

THE SHADOW, plus a
look at the history ot this
genre con. Also, how
New Line Cinema lured
Wes Craven lo reinvent
NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET *8.00

[OHEfAWTAynoiH

Volume 16 Number 2

HIGHLANDER
Coverage of Ibis epic film
includes interviews with
Mulcahy, Sean Connery*
Chnslopher Lambert and
makeup artist Bob Keene
MO

Volume 25 Number 2
THE STAND cover

Filming Slephen
King s THE STAND, plus
a look inside the King
horror empire. This issue
also features BABYLON
5 SB.00

IMAGI MOVIES
Volume 1 Number 1

Featuring Stephen
King s NEEDFUL
THINGS, THE STAND
and THE DARK HALF
Also features ALIEN 3,
and NEMESIS $3.00

Volume 14 Number 2

The films of David
Cronenberg: THE DEAD
ZONE and VtDEOOROME
Also, filming the special
effects for Douglas
Trumbulfs

BRAINSTORM $8.00

Volume 11 Number 3

CONAN THE
BARBARIAN Also, a
preview of Rick Baker's
makeup for AMERICAN
WEREWOLF IN
LONDON and the filming
Of WOLFEN, $3.00

Volume 17 Number 1

LITTLE SHOP OF
HORRORS, from Roger
Gorman's '60s B-film to
Frank Ox's big-budget
blockbuster. Interviews
with Roger Gorman and
others. $0.00

Volume 13 Number 5

Walt Disney's
SOMETHING WICKED
THIS WAY COMES. Also.
SPACEHUNTER in 3 D.
a preview of Disney's
THE BLACK CAULDRON
and more $0.00

Volume 11 Number2

ALTERED STATES
Also. Pierre Spongier on
SUPERMAN II, David
Allen on Ihe stop motion
effects for CAVEMAN,
and HEAVY METAL
preproduction $10.00

Volume 15 Number 3

lobe Hooper's
UFEFORCE Also, an
examination of
NIGHTMARE ON ELM
STREET and James
Cameron's THE TERMIN¬
ATOR $8 00

Volume 9 Number 3~4

THE BLACK HOLE,
fealunng interviews with
over 20 Disney actors,
artists and engineers
Also, a biography of
production designer Peter
Elltmshaw, $14.00

Volume 12 Number 1

GHOST STORY,
including interviews with
director, screenwriter and
visual effects supervisor
Also, the ghastly
apparitions of Makeup
artist Dick Smith. $0.00

Volume 15 Number 4

RETURN OF THE
LIVING DEAD, an
unofficial sequel lo
Romero's famed cult
classics Also, an in*
sightful retrospect on past
zombie films $8,00

Volume 16 Number 1

PSYCHO III: Anthony
Perkins on directing this
sequel, and his career
since the onginal. Also,
Terry Gilkam s fight with
Universal over BRAZIL
$8 00

IMAGI MOVIES
Volume 1 Number 4

WOLF, a contemporary
reworking of classical
werewolf mythology Also
features THE MASK, ED
WOOD, and TVs LOIS
AND CLARK $8.00

Volume 13 Number 6/
Volume 14 Number 1

The 3 D explosion of
1983 Includes
SPACEHUNTER. JAWS
3 D. METALSTORM and
a detailed analysis of 3’
0*8 history. $14.00

Volume 15 Number 1

A look at CGI's more
formative period, with
THE LAST

STARFIGHTER, which
paved the way for today's
ubiquitous and dazzling
CGI sequences $8.00

IMAGI MOVIES
Volume 2 Number 1

NIGHTMARE ON
ELMSTREET VII Also.
Disney villains. MST-3K
THE MOVIE, and our 1st
annual *50 Most Powerful
People in Sci-Fi * $8 00

Volume 15 Number 2

The career of Peter
Kuran, one time STAR
WARS apprentice,
highlighted by numerous
color photos Also. Tm
Burton s short film
FRANKENWEENIE $8.00

Volume 20 Number 4

The Handmaid s Tale
brought to life on the
screen. Interviews with
Atwood, Schlondorf.
Richardson and crew
Also THE HUNT FOR
RED OCTOBER $8,00

IMAGI MOVIES
Volume 2 Number 4

Fant Asia* Uttraman,
the American version plus
a retrospective on the
original Also* TALES
FROM THE HOOD.

$800

ORDER TOLL FREE BY PHONE, 1-800-798-6515 OR USE ORDER FORM, SEE PAGE 62

CFQ BOOKSHOP

Volume 6 Number 4-
Vblume 7 Number 1

Makng STAR WARS
interviews with actors artists
and more Also. Spwfoerg
and Tnjmbul on CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS OF THE
THIRD KIND $20 00

Volume 25 Number 3
2001 COVER

2001: Douglas
Trumbull discusses his
special effects and
working with Kubrick
Also, the making of THE
FLINTSTONES $8.00

1^5

Volume 11 Number 4

Ray Harryhausen
retrospect, part 1: His
childhood and earliest
expen meets, through

seventh voyage of
S 1NBAD Rare photos and
inside information $8 00

Volume 22 Number 4

THE SILENCE OF THE
LAMBS Interviews wrth
the director, production
designer, director of
photography, and makeup
artists Also, MEMOIRS OF
AN INVISIBLE MAN $8.00

Volume 10 Number 3

Making CLASH OF
THE TITANS, with
storyboards, behind the^
scenes shots, early
animation tests, color
composites and more.
$0.00

Volume 21 Number 3

DARK SHADOWS
retrospect Also includes
info on 1990's prime time
reincarnation on NBC
Also the remaking of
NIGHT OF THE LIVING
DEAD $8 00

Volume 10 Number 2

Hitchcocks THE
BIROS, including
interviews with the
screenwriter, production
designer, matte artist, bird
trainer, Tippi Hedren. and
Sir Alfred himseti $8.00

Volume 22 Number 5

The final adventure of
the original STAR TREK
cast. Includes interviews
with the cast and crew
and an annotated guide
to the six films. Also,
SLEEPWALKERS. $8.00

Volume 22 Number 2

STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION,
season 4, with episode
guide. Also,

TERMINATOR 2 and Tim
Burton on BATMAN
RETURNS $8.00

Volume 23 Number 2-3

STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION,
season 5. from special
effects to makeup to
production design.
Includes episode guide
$14,00

Volume 24 Number 3-4
Two Captains Cover

STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION
season 6, with episode
guide Also DEEP SPACE
NINE s first season, with
episode guide $14*00

Volume 25:626:1
TV series cover

STAR TREK: THE
NEXT GENERATION
season 7 with episode
guide AJso DEEP SPACE
NINE'S second season
with episode guide $14.00

Volume 23 Number 6

DEEP SPACE NINE
Includes interviews with
the creators, profiles of
the cast, and coverage of
special effects Also.
METEOR MAN, and
SPACE RANGERS $8 00

Volume 28 Number 6

STAR TREK FIRST
CONTACT. AJso, a 30th
anniversary look at DARK
SHADOWS, featuring
actor Johathan Fnd. plus
a 401h anniversary look at
GODZILLA $8.00

Volume 26 Number 5

JUDGE DREDD,
Danny Gannon's future*
world based on the
British comic book icon.
AJso. WATERWORLD.
POCAHONTAS, and THE
LANGOLIERS $8.00

Volume 28 Number 2

Making ESCAPE
FROM LA Also, a
possible senes for
George Taket plus
DRAGONHEART and
TARZAN EPIC
ADVENTURES $8.00

Volume 23 Number 1

EVIL DEAD l and II.
and EVIL DEAD III: ARMY
OF DARKNESS
Interviews wrth the
director, makeup
supervisor and production
designer $8.00

1MAGI MOVIES
Volume 2 Number 2
Frankenstein Cover

MARY SHELLEY S
FRANKENSTEIN Also,
INTERVIEW WITH THE
VAMPIRE, and DEAD
AT 21. $8.00

Volume 10 Number 4

David Cronenberg
career article: a look at
this audacious director
and the shockers that
made him famous Also,
SUPERMAN and
CONAN. $8.00

Volume 16 Number 3

To be Hooper ’s
INVADERS FROM
MARS AJso. a look at
David Cronenberg's
remake of THE FLY and
filming the effects of
POLTERGEIST II $8*00

Volume 13 Number 4

THE DARK CRYSTAL,
featuring an Interview
with Jim Henson and a
review of his career AJso.
THE HUNGER, and a
review of Cronenberg's
VIDEODROME $8.00

Volume 28 Number 7

MARS ATTACKS
Including casting, CGI
effects, the Topps trading
cards and more Also,
LEXX: DARK ZONE
ADVENTURES and
SCREAM $8.00

Volume 15 Number 5

LEGEND Director
Ridley Scott and makeup
master Rob Boltin's
fantasy extravaganza
Also, Wolfgang Peter¬
sen's ENEMY MINE
$8.00

Volume 18 Number 5

Making PHANTASM II
and a look at the original
film Wes Craven speaks
out on why he bid
goodbye to the popular
ELM STREET. Also.
ROBOJOX $8.00

1MAGI MOVIES
Volume 1 Number 2

RETURN OF THE
LIVING DEAD-PART III,
the director, makeup team
and more Also, MST3K,
and Clive Barker on
HELLRAISER $8.00

Volume 27 Number 9

JAMES AND THE
GIANT PEACH Henry
SlHick brings Roald
Dahl’s children's fantasy
to life Also Universal s
CGI effects epic,
DRAGONHEART $8.00

Volume 19 Number 4

THE ADVENTURES
OF BARON
MUNCHAUSEN Inlet
views with Terry Gilliam
and others, who describe
the rocky road to the
film's completion $8.00

Volume 26 Number 4

Charles Band, founder
of Full Moon video, with
CASTLE FREAK and
JOSH KIRBY TIME
WARRIOR Also, Joel
Schumaker on BATMAN
FOREVER $8 00

ORDER TOLL FREE BY PHONE, 1-800-798-6515 OR USE ORDER FORM, SEE PAGE 62